3. Market Harborough-Essendene-19.08.80

THE ARCHIVE FILES > Archive-1980 > 14. East of England Summer Tour-17-22.08.80 > 3. Market Harborough-Essendene-19.08.80

After camping just north of Market Harborough we continued north to Leicester and then crossed to the East Coast Mainline via Stamford. We camped at a favoured spot next to the ECML at Essendine where we stayed last summer. Unfortunately, the weather was not fantastic with some very overcast skies.

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Images 1-15 of 15 displayed.

Frontage, former Glendon & Rushton station (Closed 04.01.60)
The rather grand former Glendon and Rushton station stands next to the double-tracked Midland Mainline. The station was opened in 1857 as Rushton station but was renamed in 1896 so as to avoid confusion with the nearby Rushden station that is actually pronounced 'Rush-ten' (sic) by Northamtoniaons. The station was closed on 04.01.60 with the house becoming a private residence in later years after restoration and is now a Grade II listed structure. It looks as though the owner of the Austin Allegro parked in front of the station needs to get one side of the Hydrogas suspension pumped up!
Keywords: Frontage former Glendon & Rushton station

Desborough North signal box (Mid, c.1895)
Desborough North signal box occupied a commanding position half way up on an embankment north of the closed station. In this view, the down relief line is seen adjacent to the main lines. I know very little about this 1895 Midland box, if anybody can furnish me with some facts I would appreciate it.
Keywords: Desborough North signal box Midland Railway

Little Bowden Crossing signal box (LNWR, 1879)
Little Bowden Level Crossing signal box is seen in Market Harborough. It was located where the LNWR route from the town to Northampton passed over Scotland Road. The box was a typical LNWR structure dating from 1879. When the line closed the box was saved and is now in use at the Northampton and Lamport Railway being renamed Pitsford and Brampton. When I took this photograph the line had fallen out of frequent use with just the very occasional freight, engineering or diversionary train. Almost a year to the day that I stood on the up track and took this photograph the line was shut by BR. Many now rue the day that this event took place as the lack of strategic lines effectively running west to east linking mainlines is a problem. Just consider now if it was in use and electrified, it would then link the WCML with the MML with the wires now planning to reach Market Harborough by the end of 2022. However, the users of the ever-popular Brampton Valley Way that follows the old trackbed would not be so keen!
Keywords: Little Bowden Crossing signal box LNWR railway

Market Harborough signal box (LNWR, date U K)
Formally named Market Harborough Number Three signal box is seen from the platform end of the station. It's an interesting anomaly that the former LNWR box is actually controlling the Midland route to the north end of Harborough station. There used to be two Midland boxed (One and Two) located here but they were taken out use as various rationalisations took place hence this one remaining. Notice its wooden name board has had the No. 3 removed and painted over. The lines behind the box are the former LNWR to Northampton that closed almost a year from the day that I took this photograph.
Keywords: Market Harborough signal box

Kibworth Station signal box (Midland, 1926)
Kibworth Station signal box was built in 1927 by the LMS utilising the pre-grouping Midland Type 4d design. The box stood at the western end of the station off the platform ramp and replaced a much earlier 1889 structure. The box did not remain in the same state over the coming seven years before its closure as it suffered fire damage early in 1984. It was temporarily closed with the previously closed East Langton box being brought back into use. It was subsequently repaired with the hipped roof replaced by a flat version and the enamel nameplate moved from the end of the box to the front. It finally closed on 29.06.86 when all the boxes between Leicester and Market Harborough passed their control over to Leicester PSB located just north of the depot on the eastern side of the lines. Interestingly, the fabled 'Leicester Gap' was one of the very last sections of the MML to be resignalled but the first to be modernised with the PSB closing in 2008 with control moving to the East Midlands Regional Signalling Centre at Derby.
Keywords: Kibworth Station signal box

Wistow signal box (Mid, date not known)
According to the milepost located at ninety-one and a half miles from London St. Pancras Wistow, signal box is seen in a particularly remote location. In fact, it took Graham and me quite some time to reach the box navigating our way through a number of fields and assaulting an embankment! It is a Midland box but its date of opening is not known unless anybody can supply me with the information? A further indication of the remoteness of the box is the bags of coal stacked up next to the box that will have been delivered by a passing train that will have stopped in the adjacent loop.
Keywords: Wistow signal box Midland Railway

Wigston South Junction signal box (Mid, 1900)
The large Wigston South Junction signal box is seen from the rear located in the southern suburbs of Leicester. The Midland box was Type 3 structure constructed in 1900. It sat in the triangle of lines that linked the Midland Mainline to the Nuneaton route via Hinkley. Graham had in his notes that there was also a Wigston North Junction box that we attempted to find but we were thwarted by new industrial developments.
Keywords: Wigston South Junction signal box Midland Railway

45057, up coal train, Leicester North
A superb scene taken from Leicester's Sparkenhoe Road bridge sees 45057 bring a train of loaded coal wagons slowly towards the station from the north. Peak 45057 is an interesting member of the class as it had different nose cone types. The end facing the camera here is the twin marker light type that had replaced a single headcode panel. However, at the other end facing the coal wagons, it had split headcode boxes that it kept, I believe until its demise in January 1985 returning here to Leicester to be cut up at Vic Berry's scrapyard just south of the station. In the background is Leicester North signal box and beyond the diesel depot (LR). After being downgraded to carriage stabling it is now home to the fast-growing rail procurement company UKRL. All of the buildings to the left have now been demolished and have given way to a variety of retailing establishments on the St. George's retail park.
Keywords: 45057 up coal train Leicester North Sparkenhoe Road

M56144 & M51291, 12.05 Peterborough-Leicester, Leicester North
The 12.05 Peterborough to Leicester service approaches it destination being worked by a Class 105 Cravens DMU with Driving Trailer Composite Lavatory (DTCL) E56144 leading a Motor Brake Second (MBS) number M51291 at the rear. The leading car had just another two years in service whilst the powered car lasted on to January 1985 with both withdrawn at their home depot of Norwich. Behind the DMU is Leicester North signal box a Midland Type 4C that opened in 1911. Whilst many ignored DMUs at this time concentrating on saving their valuable film for more exotic machines I always tried to capture them. Looking back some forty years later, I am so glad that I made the effort; for the record, I really like this photograph!
Keywords: M56144 M51291 12.05 Peterborough-Leicester Leicester North Class 105 Cravens Driving Trailer Composite Lavatory DTCL E56144

Former Midland Railway lower quadrant signal, Leicester yard
I am not at all sure how we got into Leicester yard to take this photograph but my contemporary notes describe how we managed to get to the signal in some detail! My words say how we slowly walked along a path next to the lines in the shadow of a slow-moving tanker train, that can be seen behind the signal, thus hiding us from the station and the signalman in North box. While I do not condone these actions some forty years on I am really pleased that this photograph was the result. It shows a very rare ex-Midland lower quadrant semaphore that was still in use mounted on an original wooden post complete with a very ornate finial. Even back in 1980, this pre-grouping piece of operational infrastructure was at least sixty years old but probably considerably more.
Keywords: Former Midland Railway lower quadrant signal Leicester yard

44007, down freight, Rearsby level crossing
As we were taking lunch in a pull-in at Rearsby the AHBs were lowered and we got ready for a train. We were delighted as 44007 'Ingleborough' came into view leading a fantastic mixed fitted freight heading in the Peterborough direction. If anybody can identify what this freight may have been please do get in contact. Notice that the Peak, that had just four months left in service, has lost two of its headcode disks perhaps to trophy hunters? In the days before CCTV I was able to step past the marked lines towards the track without causing unnecessary apoplexy to somebody monitoring the crossing at their distant workstation somewhere!
Keywords: 44007 down freight Rearsby level crossing Ingleborough

Frisby Station signal box (LMS, 1941)
Frisby signal box is located at a level crossing on the edge of the village of Frisby on the Wreake. At the time of writing it is still in use today as a crossing box and whilst essentially similar still maintaining its LMS origin nameboard it has had the Network Rail 'treatment'. The box is an LMS Type 11C dating from 1941. It replaced an earlier structure that simply controlled the crossing.
Keywords: Frisby Station Signal Box

55007, 17.05 London King's Cross-Hull, 'The Hull Executive' (1D04), Little Ponton SK939330
By the early evening, the light had really dropped a situation made even worse as I am now located in a deep cutting at Great Ponton on the northern flank of Stoke bank just south of Grantham. 55007 'Pinza' descends Stoke leading one of the ECML's few named trains, the fabled Hull Executive. This crack express, that on launch in 1978, had to maintain an average speed of over ninety-one miles per hour between London and Retford. However, by the summer 1980 timetable, it was re-timed to leave King's Cross at 17.05 running now with three stops at Newark, Retford and Doncaster until it reached Humberside with stops at Goole and Brough.
Keywords: 55007 17.05 London King's Cross-Hull The Hull Executive 1D04 Little Ponton SK939330

55003, 16.30 Hull-London King's Cross (1A28), Little Ponton SK939330
We could hear 55003 'Meld' thrashing away from Grantham climbing the northern flank of Stoke bank for some time before it entered the cutting here at Little Ponton. By the time it reached us here, leading the 1A28 16.30 Hull to King's Cross, it was going well with just over one hundred miles to go to its destination. 'Meld' looks smart with its white cab surrounds indicating that it was a Finsbury Park Deltic.
Keywords: 55003 16.30 Hull-London King's Cross 1A28 Little Ponton SK93933

Images 1-15 of 15 displayed.