Eastern Entrance to Immingham Dock electric railway station

Eastern Entrance to Immingham Dock electric railway station was a temporary halt 62 chains (1.2 km) by route south east of the western terminus of the inter-urban[2] Grimsby and Immingham Electric Railway which ran from Corporation Bridge, Grimsby with a reversal at what was euphemistically called Immingham Town.[3]

Eastern Entrance to Immingham Dock
LocationImmingham, North East Lincolnshire
England
Coordinates53.6210°N 0.1770°W / 53.6210; -0.1770
Grid referenceTA206153
Platforms0
Other information
StatusDisused
History
Original companyGreat Central Railway
Pre-groupingGreat Central Railway
Key dates
September 1916opened (first in Bradshaw)
July 1920closed (last in Bradshaw)[1]

The halt was a request stop. It appeared in Bradshaw's Guides from September 1916 to July 1920[4][1] and in the GCR timetable dated 5 May 1919 .[5] A printer's proof ticket shows the halt as "Eastern Ent. to Imm Dock".[6]

Overview

The electric railway was built primarily to carry workers between Grimsby and Immingham Dock which the Great Central Railway had built on a greenfield site in a sparsely populated area. The line was built by the Great Central and remained in railway ownership up to closure in 1961. It therefore appeared in railway timetables[7] and it was possible to buy through tickets between any of the stops on the line and anywhere on the national railway network,[8] though there never was any physical connection with any conventional track, nor with the tramways in Grimsby and Cleethorpes.

In modern parlance the vehicles would be described as trams, but they were typically referred to locally and in publications such as Bradshaw as "cars"[4][7] or "tramcars", with related things being called names such as "tramcar halt" and "tramcar bridge." "Car" was always a more common short form than "tram."

Location and facilities

Eastern Entrance to Immingham Dock tramcar station was situated exactly where its name implies, at the eastern boundary of dock land at Habrough Marsh Drain bridge three quarters of a mile from the terminus near the dock's lock gates. At this point road and rail merged, with the tracks changing to grooved tramway common throughout all road tramways.[9] This spot was and remains the eastern boundary of dock property. In 2012 this was a continuously staffed entrance checkpoint with barriers to road vehicles and pedestrians. In the 1950s and 1960s the spot was completely unmarked, with not so much as a sign to indicate entering or leaving dock property.

The halt was provided here from mid-1916 to July 1920,[4][1] but its purpose is unclear. It may have been a version of the modern checkpoint or to serve works which ended with the war.

The line was a tramway, no platforms ever existed at any of the stopping places; passengers were expected to board and alight from the roadway or trackside cinders according to the location. The "stations" were much more commonly referred to a s "halts" or "stopping places." Passengers bought tickets on board from the conductor.

The line's two termini - Corporation Bridge and Immingham Dock - were the only halts on the line to attempt anything along the lines of railway nameboards, both proclaimed themselves in very large letters to be a "TRAMWAY STATION."[10]

The line from the station

The line from the terminus eastwards to the dock property boundary was conventional double track running alongside the dock road, giving the appearance of a conventional railway, except for the absence of fencing between road and rail.[11]

At Habrough Marsh Drain bridge three quarters of a mile from the terminus near the dock's lock gates. road and rail merged, with the tracks changing to grooved tramway common throughout all road tramways.[9]

This spot was and remains the eastern boundary of dock property and was the site of Eastern Entrance to Immingham Dock tramcar halt.

From this point road and tramtracks climbed southeastwards up one of the two "hills" on the whole line, i.e. the bridge over the conventional Grimsby District Light Railway line near Immingham East Junction.[12] This bridge, which was in regular, heavy road use in 2013, was known locally as "tramcar bridge."[13] At the other side of the bridge was "Tramcar Halt", or, formally, Immingham Town.

Services

Unusually among British tramways services ran round the clock, particularly to provide for railway workers based at Immingham engine shed, whose duties often involved starting or finishing at unsocial hours. Traffic was highly peaked, with convoys of tramcars leaving and arriving to match shift changes at the dock. It was normal for several tramcars to rest at Dock station between peaks.[14][15]

In 1956 over a million passengers used the line[16] and even with deliberate rundown a quarter of a million used it in its last twelve months up to closure in July 1961.

Closure

The line took some years to die, being cut back at the Grimsby end in 1956 then reduced to peak services only in 1959, when it disappeared from Bradshaw and through ticketing beyond the line was withdrawn.[17] Formal closure of the line and Dock tramcar station came on Monday 3 July 1961, with the last tramcars running on Saturday 1 July 1961 when a convoy of six tramcars set off, nominally at 14:03. The last tramcar of this convoy and therefore the last through the site of the halt was Number 4.[18]

Aftermath

The first track on the line to be removed was at Dock tramcar station, to give increased parking space. The process of demolition was piecemeal and even in 2013 many hints of the line remained, such as spun concrete masts near Tramcar Bridge. No trace of Eastern Entrance to Immingham Dock Halt remained.

Former Services
Preceding station   Disused railways   Following station
Immingham Dock   Great Central Railway
Grimsby and Immingham Electric Railway		   Immingham Town

References
  1. Quick 2009, p. 224.
  2. Feather 1993, p. 1.
  3. Ludlam 2006, pp. 426 & 428.
  4. Bradshaw 1917, p. 710.
  5. Pask 1999, p. 3 & 17.
  6. Pask 1999, p. 15.
  7. Bradshaw 1985, p. 717.
  8. Price 1991, p. 112.
  9. Price 1991, p. 77.
  10. Crossland & Turner 2012, pp. 30 & 31.
  11. Bett & Gillham, p. 62.
  12. Kent 1959, p. 566.
  13. Price 1991, p. 81.
  14. King & Hewins 1989, Photos 57 & 58.
  15. Bett & Gillham, p. 61.
  16. Price 1991, p. 94.
  17. Bates & Bairstow 2005, p. 85.
  18. Price 1991, p. 101.

Sources
  • Bates, Chris; Bairstow, Martin (2005). Railways in North Lincolnshire. Leeds: Martin Bairstow. ISBN 1-871944-30-9.
  • Bett, W. H.; Gillham, J. C. The Tramways of South Yorkshire and Humberside. Light Railway Transport League.
  • Bradshaw, George (1917). Bradshaw's Railway Guide. Bradshaw.
  • Bradshaw, George (1985) [1922]. Bradshaw's July 1922 Railway Guide. Newton Abbott: David & Charles.
  • Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199.
  • Crossland, G J; Turner, C E (2012) [2006]. Immingham A History of the Deep Water Port. T&C Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9543051-2-3.
  • Dow, George (1965). Great Central, Volume Three: Fay Sets the Pace, 1900-1922. Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0263-0.
  • Feather, T. (February 1993). "Great Central Inter-Urban". Forward. Great Central Railway Society. ISSN 0141-4488.
  • Kent, L. (August 1959). Cooke, B.W.C. (ed.). "The Grimsby & Immingham Tramway". The Railway Magazine. London, SW1: Tothill Press Ltd. 105 (700). ISSN 0033-8923.CS1 maint: location (link)
  • King, Paul K.; Hewins, Dave R. (1989). Scenes from the Past: 5 The Railways around Grimsby, Cleethorpes, Immingham and North-east Lincolnshire. Stockport: Foxline Publishing. ISBN 1-870119-04-5.
  • Ludlam, A.J. (1996). Railways to New Holland and the Humber Ferries, LP 198. Headington, Oxford: The Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-494-6.
  • Ludlam, A.J. (July 2006). Kennedy, Rex (ed.). "Immingham-Gateway to the Continent". Steam Days. Bournemouth: Redgauntlet Publications (203). ISSN 0269-0020.
  • Pask, Brian (1999). The Tickets of the Grimsby & Immingham Electric Railway. Sevenoaks: The Transport Ticket Society. ISBN 0-903209-33-0.
  • Price, J. H. (1991). The Tramways of Grimsby, Immingham & Cleethorpes. Light Rail Transit Association. ISBN 0-948106-10-7.
  • Quick, Michael (September 2009). Railway Passenger Stations in Great Britain - a Chronology. Railway & Canal Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-901461-57-5.

Further material
  • Anderson, Paul (1992). Railways of Lincolnshire. Oldham: Irwell Press. ISBN 1-871608-30-9.
  • Electric Traction Archive, 118, B&R Video Productions, contains a fine archive section on the tramway
  • The Passing of Pyewipe, Online Video, available via Great Central Railway Society, solely about the tramways of Immingham, Grimsby & Cleethorpes
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