Remembering the railway lines around Bourne
Many moons ago Bourne had a railway station which as a youngster of about 10 years of age I remember well, writes Alan Romaine.
With its two platforms, sheds and a fascinating turntable which captivated my young imagination seeing those massive breathing monsters being turn around by one man, often my father Leslie, with a what appeared to be only a very flimsy handle.
This station whose office was once what is now known as the Red Hall helped connect the east coast with the main LNER line London to the north and also to the Midlands via Melton Mowbray and points west.
My knowledge of the history of this station and lines is very sketchy and there will be readers no doubt with a far superior memory and history of this railway, to those readers I can only apologise if my facts are to say the least sketchy.
However recently I have through changing circumstances been visiting this town of my birth far more regularly and perchance came upon the information that a bridge over the Bourne to Saxby line, which was closed in February 1959, was most likely destined to be demolished.
As a young lad of about 10 I was privileged to travel on the footplate of a steam locomotive to Essendine and back with my engine driver uncle Jim Lee who then owned the Dinky Shop in the town.
We must have steamed near this particular bridge and I thought it a good idea to get some photographs for my album before it is too late.
That seemed to me to be a fairly simple task but I was wrong. The site of the bridge is just west of Bourne but inside the new bypass where all the new building of the Elsea Park estate is taking place.
Trying to reach the bridge took me four visits and some very difficult terrain and occasional not very pleasant remarks from the various resident building workforces, health and safety this and health and safety that! Being of a certain age my attitude to H and S is a little dated and not very accommodating.
Anyway I found the bridge which was a bit like finding a lost temple in the Mayan jungles of South America.
It was completely covered by undergrowth and barely to be seen other than when within 20 paces or so, this is such a pity because I feel pretty certain that it would have been a most handsome and imposing structure in its prime now unfortunately well past its best and, if my information is to be relied upon, soon to meet its
doom.
Fortunately it was a very pleasant bright and warm, almost too warm day for jungle exploration.
I feel the graffiti actually adds to the mood of the photographs.
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