Never seen before photos uncovered after 50 years of the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway

A previously unseen collection of the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway photos has been published after more than 50 years.

The line opened in August 1960 at North Sea Lane in Humberston and was built to take holidaymakers to the nearby beach and holiday camp.

To allow the Grimsby Rural District Council to use the railway site for caravan trade, the LCLR relocated from 1966, and 50 yards south to the new Beach station and then a new station at Fitties, known as South Sea Lane.

It’s a sunny June day in 1961 and the LCLR has been open for less than a year but is developing rapidly. A train of two open carriages converted from First World War Class D bogie wagons is ready to depart for the Beach, behind the line’s first loco, Motor Rail ‘Simplex’ “Paul” (builder’s number 3995 of 1926). On the right are former WW1 ambulance vans which once carried potatoes on the Nocton Estates Railway — © Gordon Green

However, holiday patterns changed, and the line closed in 1985, with the collection going to Burgh-le-Marsh.

Fast forward a couple of decades, and the collection and railway reopened some 42 miles south in Skegness Water Leisure Park, reopening in 2009.

The original route is close to what is now known as the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway, and this even has a station called North Sea Lane and has hopes to extend further towards the original LCLR terminus.

back to 1962 and it’s the original North Sea Lane station, where recently acquired and re-bodied ‘Simplex’ “Wilton” (builder’s number 7481 of 1940) is ready to depart for Beach with one of the former Ashover Light Railway carriages restored by the LCLR after years as a sports pavilion at Clay Cross, Derbyshire — © Trevor Dodgson

The Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway originally discovered never-seen-before photos back in the first lockdown, before the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway found some unseen photos of the CCLR.

Mike Swift, former secretary of the Narrow Gauge Railway Society was prompted to have a look for more colour slides of the opening day, and these have now been passed on to the LCLR Historic Vehicles Trust.

under lowering skies which are a reminder of why so many holidaymakers deserted British resorts for Spanish sunshine: “Jurassic” and train on their way to Beach and the Fitties camp in 1970 — © Trevor Dodgson

They show Trevor Dodgson and the late Gordon Green in the never-seen-before photos taken in 1961, 1962 and 1970.

for many years a steam engine owned by an LCLR director, the late John Burdett of Louth, was based on the LCLR, but proved too heavy for the track. “Elin” was an 0-4-0ST built by the Hunslet Engine Company of Leeds in 1899, as their works number 705, for slate quarries in Wales and after closure of the Humberston site, was moved first to the Yaxham Light Railway in Norfolk and is now on the Richmond Light Railway in Kent — © Trevor Dodgson

LCLR spokesman John Chappell said: “These wonderful old photographs help us record the history of our pioneering railway and its place in demonstrating the history of the world’s narrow gauge railways. We hope that when lock-down restrictions are eased, we can again let people sample the experience of riding trains that date back to the trench railways of the World War One battlefields and before. We’re very grateful to everyone who has sent us these photos and especially to our friends at Cleethorpes and in the NGRS for initiating this.”

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