The East Lincolnshire Railway was a main line railway linking the towns of Boston

Boston, Lincolnshire

Boston is a town and small port in Lincolnshire, on the east coast of England. It is the largest town of the wider Borough of Boston local government district and had a total population of 55,750 at the 2001 census...

, Louth

Louth, Lincolnshire

Louth is a market town and civil parish within the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England.-Geography:Known as the "capital of the Lincolnshire Wolds", it is situated where the ancient trackway Barton Street crosses the River Lud, and has a total resident population of 15,930.The Greenwich...

 and Grimsby

Grimsby

Grimsby is a seaport on the Humber Estuary in Lincolnshire, England. It has been the administrative centre of the unitary authority area of North East Lincolnshire since 1996...

 in Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It opened in 1848 and was closed to passengers in 1970.

History

The East Lincolnshire Railway was proposed as one of a group of allied railway bills during 1845 and 1846 as part of plans by the Great Northern Railway

Great Northern Railway (Great Britain)

The Great Northern Railway was a British railway company established by the Great Northern Railway Act of 1846. On 1 January 1923 the company lost its identity as a constituent of the newly formed London and North Eastern Railway....

 (GNR) to gain a link between London and Leeds / York. The section between Louth and Grimsby was opened on 1 March 1848 quickly followed by Louth to Boston on 1 October 1848. The line was leased to the GNR from the beginning.

In 1897, there was an ambitious plan for the Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway

Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway

The Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway was a British railway company built toward the end of the era of British railway construction. It opened its line from Chesterfield to Lincoln in 1897....

 to join the loop (at that time known as the Sutton and Willoughby Railway) making a junction at Thurlby and running to Sutton on Sea where a new North Sea

North Sea

In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

 port and harbour would be built.

In 1905, a number of halts were opened to support a new railmotor service.

Closure

The line south from Louth to Firsby Junction was closed on 5 October 1970. The Grimsby to Louth line remained in use for freight to the Associated British Maltsters in Louth, with final closure in 1980. The line north of Waltham was used for the construction of the A16 Peaks Parkway

Peaks Parkway

The Peaks Parkway is part of the northern end of the A16 road, in Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire. It was conceived in the 1970s and follows part of the trackbed of the former East Lincolnshire Railway between and .-Background:...

.

Preservation, reopening and future plans

In 1978, a small preservation group called the Grimsby-Louth Rail group was set up with aims to preserve the entire section, however the Grimsby attempt is no longer possible as the Waltham-Grimsby section is now a bypass, so the group was renamed and changed to Grimsby-Louth Railway preservation society. A new company was formed to purchase the 11 miles (17.7 km) trackbed from Louth to New Waltham as BR would not sell to a society. The company's name was the Great Northern and East Lincolnshire railway co. plc. The trading name of the company is now the Lincolnshire Wolds Railway.

In 1991 A light railway order was granted to Great Northern & East Lincolnshire Railway plc who then bought 11 miles (17.7 km) of trackbed between Keddinton Road, Louth and Waltham

Waltham railway station

Waltham was a railway station on the East Lincolnshire Railway which served the villages of New Waltham and Humberston in Lincolnshire between 1848 and 1964. It was originally named Waltham and Humberstone, but Humberstone was dropped soon after opening...

. Since then the section of track was relaid between Ludborough

Ludborough railway station

Ludborough is a heritage railway station in Ludborough, Lincolnshire, which is the base of the Lincolnshire Wolds Railway. The station, which was previously part of the East Lincolnshire Railway, closed in 1961 to passengers and 1965 to freight, but was taken over by the preservation society in 1984...

 and North Thoresby

North Thoresby railway station

North Thoresby is a heritage railway station in North Thoresby, Lincolnshire. The station, which was previously part of the East Lincolnshire Railway, closed in 1970, but has recently been reopened by the Lincolnshire Wolds Railway. The first services to the station from , to the south, ran in...

 in 2008 and in August 2009 North Thoresby

North Thoresby railway station

North Thoresby is a heritage railway station in North Thoresby, Lincolnshire. The station, which was previously part of the East Lincolnshire Railway, closed in 1970, but has recently been reopened by the Lincolnshire Wolds Railway. The first services to the station from , to the south, ran in...

 station reopened nearly 30 years after complete closure by BR in 1980. A section of track is now currently being relaid south of Ludborough

Ludborough railway station

Ludborough is a heritage railway station in Ludborough, Lincolnshire, which is the base of the Lincolnshire Wolds Railway. The station, which was previously part of the East Lincolnshire Railway, closed in 1961 to passengers and 1965 to freight, but was taken over by the preservation society in 1984...

 towards Utterby

Utterby railway station

Utterby Halt was a railway halt on the East Lincolnshire Railway which served the village of Utterby in Lincolnshire between 1905 and 1961. The station, which opened as part of a new motor train service between and , is reputed to be haunted by the ghost of a ganger killed on the level crossing in...

.

There are still plans to eventually extend the LWR itself north to Holton-Le-Clay and south to Louth as part of the 8 miles (12.9 km) re-instatement project in the future.