Mablethorpe Trains 1960s

The Louth to Mablethorpe Railway, was built by farmers and tradesmen was opened on October 16th 1877. It ran at a loss and was sold out to the Great Northern in 1889. A year earlier, the branch line from Willoughby was built, but came only to Sutton and was not extended to Mablethorpe until around 1892. About the turn of the century, the Railway Company wished to build a large hotel, whore the Midland Bank now stands, but so great was the opposition from the existing hotels and boarding houses that the scheme was abandoned.

The line still ran at a loss and after this set-back to their plans, the Company practically ignored Mablethorpe. Before the Sutton-Willoughby branch was extended to Mablethorpe, the late Mr. Ben Simon Sithen of the Bacchus Hotel Sutton on Sea, operated a kind of Wells Fargo coach service between Sutton and Mablethorpe and for some reason, the Mablethorpe Stationmaster used to ride with him. The first Mablethorpe Stationmaster was Mr. John Watson and the last, Mr. D. Oxby. The yard at Mablethorpe had its own engine and crew and apart from excursions, there were seven trains each way, with an additional long goods train. The line finally closed in December 1960 and within a few days the tracks in the station were torn up.

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Education

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• Mablethorpe
• History

[Mablethorpeistops]

Lets also remember Labour was responsible for the road building boom of the 60's and created more than a million jobs in services and suppliers. Then along came the Tory's and changed legestion and let the building program open to private contractors, Thatcher then claimed it was all a Tory idea, the cheeky Lady even opened the M25.

[keithfrmcov]

What a ruddy shame this service is not still used. The work that has been lost.

[CoastRider1975]

@Mablethorpeistops You are absolutely correct sir/madam. The seaside air obviously had corroded my sense away when writing that post. The 'Beeching Axe', courtesy of an indeed penny-pinching Tory government and not Labour, was however responsible for closing a third of the rail network in the early '60's, amounting to over 75,000 job losses.

The results are clear to see even now, over 40 years later.

A quite superbly nostalgic film, of part of our once great network.

[Mablethorpeistops]

Beeching was not single-handedly responsible for destroying the railways, that would have been impossible and well you know it. And yes Beeching's Report remain very controversial at the time.But you have to remember that the report was commissioned by a Conservative Government not a ("odious Labour Govement").

It's very important to get the facts right, I am glad you liked the film.

[johnson121able]

Yes i agree, closing of the East Lincolnshire mainline and Mablethorpe branch was i think a very poor decision. I think the BR board also tried to close the line between Skegness and Boston but failed!

Sadly the ELR will never reopen, something that i find very sad but it's the communities which will suffer the most.

[PMDVD]

Very nice bit of film!

Comparable with our shots from the 1970s on the DVD - Lincolnshire Railways Now and Then - Vol. 4

[rogerhgrew]

Yes, very short sighted.

[lynnkeith1]

Thanks for sharing - what a shame it's all gone.