Immingham (Eastern Jetty) railway station was a special excursion station built along the port's eastern
jetty
A jetty is a structure that projects from land out into water. A jetty may serve as a breakwater, as a walkway, or both; or, in pairs, as a means of constricting a channel. The term derives from the French word ', "thrown", signifying some ...
to cater for traffic to passenger ships on cruises to the
North Cape, Norwegian
Fjord
In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Förden and East Jutland Fjorde, Germany, ...
s and the
Baltic.
The station was not much more than a long wooden platform along the jetty. It was only used for the transfer of the passengers and luggage from train to ship and vice versa so little in the way of facilities was needed or provided. The critical provision was numerous staff to guide travellers and handle their belongings.
Traffic
The cruise ships sometimes berthed in the dock itself,
SS Calgaric, with the lines to the Eastern Jetty curving under the camera
''Getty Images'' but usually they moored at the seaward side of the jetty where they were adjacent to all-First Class, Restaurant Car special trains. These operated along two routes:
* to and from and with a connecting carriage from Liverpool Central
Liverpool Central railway station in Liverpool, England, forms a central hub of the Merseyrail network, being on both the Northern Line and the Wirral Line. The station is located underground on two levels, below the site of a former mainline ...
, and
* to and from , travelling either via and the Waleswood Curve or via the LDECR and . In both cases they then used the main line via .
Locomotives
Originally these trains were hauled by Great Central Railway
The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company was grouped into the ...
4-6-0 locomotives but following grouping
Grouping may refer to:
* Muenchian grouping
* Principles of grouping
* Railways Act 1921, also known as Grouping Act, a reorganisation of the British railway system
* Grouping (firearms), the pattern of multiple shots from a sidearm
See also ...
in 1922 Great Northern Railway motive power took many of them over.
Spectacle
Visits by such ships drew crowds of sightseers and passed into local folklore, none more so than the vessel which was torpedoed in 1940 with heavy loss of life.
Closure
The cruises terminated in 1939, just prior to the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
. Although the platform remained for some time, the station was effectively closed. One source suggests GCR passenger vessels plied between here, Antwerp, Hamburg and Rotterdam.
Afterlife
By 2015 the tracks on the jetty had long been lifted, but the structure remained well used, handling oils, spirits, and liquid chemicals.
Liners known to have used Immingham
* SS Arandora Star
* SS Avon
* SS Calgaric
* SS Empress of Australia
* SS Orford
*SS Orontes
SS ''Orontes'' was a passenger ship owned by Orient Line.
The ship was built in 1929 by Vickers Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness, England.
Its sister ships were ''Orama'' (II), ''Orford'', '' Oronsay'', and ''Otranto'' (II). Orontes was the la ...
References
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External links
The Eastern Jetty and tracks on a 1932 OS map
''National Library of Scotland''
The station
''Rail Map Online''
The Eastern Jetty in modern times
''World Port Source''
The Eastern Jetty and tracks
''Britain from Above'' (free login needed to zoom)
Cruise ship train arriving at the Eastern Jetty
''Getty Images''
{{Closed stations Lincolnshire
Disused railway stations in the Borough of North East Lincolnshire
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1912
Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1939
Former Great Central Railway stations
Immingham