Legbourne Road was a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

on the

East Lincolnshire Railway The East Lincolnshire Railway was a main line railway linking the towns of Boston, Louth and Grimsby in Lincolnshire, England. It opened in 1848. The ELR ''Company'' had leased the line to the Great Northern Railway, and it was the latter whic ...

which served the village of Legbourne in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

between 1848 and 1964. The station was closed to passengers in 1953, and withdrawal of goods facilities took place in 1964. The line through the station closed in 1970. The station once housed a museum containing railway memorabilia; this closed in 1998 and the building is once again a private residence.

History

The station was opened on 3 September 1848 as ''Legbourne'' after the village of Legbourne which lies to the east on what is now the

A157 road List of A roads in zone 1 in Great Britain beginning north of the River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is ...

, and renamed in May 1880 in an acknowledgement that there was some distance between the village and the station. It was constructed by Peto and

Betts Betts is an English Patronymic surname, deriving from the medieval personal name Bett, a short form of Bartholomew, Beatrice, or Elizabeth. It is also the americanized spelling of German Betz. The surname may refer to * Alejandro Jacobo Betts (1947 ...

civil engineering

contractors A general contractor, main contractor or prime contractor is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and the communication of information to all involved parties throughout the course of ...

who, in January 1848, had taken over the contract to construct the section of the

between and from John Waring and Sons. This section was the last to be completed in September 1848, at an agreed cost of £123,000 (). The line passed over two

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term a ...

s before it reached Legbourne village: the first over the A157 and the second over Mill Lane. The station was situated to the south of the first crossing which, despite its distance from the village, was possibly chosen because it was the more important of the two roads crossed. As with other stations on the line, Legbourne was provided with staggered platforms situated either side of the crossing; a signal box lay on the northern side of the crossing and as well as controlling the gates, also regulated access to the two sidings on the side adjacent to the crossing, which were the station's only goods facilities. The station did not handle livestock. The stationmaster's house is similar in style to that found at other stations on the line and was sited adjacent to the crossing on the down side. The July 1922 timetable saw four up and down weekday services, plus one Sunday service each way, call at Legbourne Road. The station was closed to passengers on 7 December 1953, one of the first such closures on the East Lincolnshire Line, but goods facilities (downgraded to an unstaffed public siding) remained for a further ten-and-a-half years until 15 June 1964.

Present day

The platforms were removed before closure and the signal box was demolished in December 1970. The main station building was later restored by Mike Legge as a museum housing a collection of

railwayana Railroadiana or railwayana refers to artifacts of currently or formerly operating railways around the world. Railroadiana can include items such as: * Brakeman's or marker lanterns * Date nails, rail spikes, or short sections of rail * D ...

. The museum acquired a signal box which had controlled the crossing of the

Alford and Sutton Tramway The Alford and Sutton Tramway was a steam narrow gauge street tramway between the seaside town of Sutton-on-Sea and the nearby Great Northern Railway line at Alford in Lincolnshire. History On 14 December 1882 the work of laying the track b ...

by the Mablethorpe Loop Line at a point on the edge of

Sutton-on-Sea Sutton-on-Sea (originally Sutton in the Marsh or Sutton le Marsh) is a village in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England, beside a long sandy beach along the North Sea. The village is part of the civil parish of Mablethorpe and Sut ...

. The box had survived the closure of both lines and had remained in the middle of a field until the 1980s. A large Great Northern-style building was constructed near the main station building; this is not original, but was built for the museum. The museum closed in 1998 upon the retirement of the owners and the contents auctioned, but the station remains in good condition as a private residence with the signal box visible from the road.

References

Sources

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External links

Legbourne Road station on navigable O. S. map

{{coord, 53.34158, 0.03935, type:railwaystation_region:GB_source:enwiki-npemap.org.uk, display=title Disused railway stations in Lincolnshire Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1953 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1848 Former Great Northern Railway stations