MELTON MOWBRAY TO WHISSENDINE.

MELTON MOWBRAY  TEMPORARY STATION OPENED NEAR LEICESTER ROAD BRIDGE 1/9/1846 AS TERMINUS. PRESENT STATION OPENED TO GOODS 20/3/1848 & PASSENGERS 1/5/1848.  OVERALL ROOF COLLAPSED ON 13/4/1876;  REPLACED WITH CANOPIES.  FIRST SIGNAL BOXES OPENED 1877, MELTON SIDINGS & MELTON CROSSING. REPLACED BY STATION BOX ON 9/8/1942.  LEVEL CROSSING REPLACED BY PRESENT ROAD BRIDGE 1900.

REMAINS AT SITE: STATION BUILDINGS IN USE, FOOTBRIDGE, LMS SIGNAL BOX IN USE.  WAGON REPAIRS BUILDING. THE GOODS SHED SITE WAS CLEARED DURING MARCH 2010 FOR REDEVELOPMENT.

EXTRACT FROM THE WORKING TIMETABLE, ISSUED OCTOBER 1st 1960.

MELTON MOWBRAY IN THE LATE 1920'S, LITTLE CHANGED FROM MIDLAND DAYS. 2-4-0 No 194 ON A PETERBOROUGH LOCAL TRAIN.

BY THE 1960'S THE MOTIVE POWER HAD CHANGED, BUT LITTLE ELSE.

PHOTO BY TONY HILL, JUNE 1956

MELTON STATION ORIGINALLY HAD AN OVERALL ROOF COVERED IN CORRUGATED IRON, SPANNING THE TWO TRACKS OF THE MAIN LINE, BUT THIS COLLAPSED UNDER THE WEIGHT OF A SNOW FALL ON 13th APRIL 1876. THE PRESENT CANOPIES WERE THEN ERECTED, FOR WHICH THE BRICK SCREEN ALONG THE LEICESTER PLATFORM HAD TO BE BUILT WITH THE SMALL WAITING ROOM BEHIND.  THE PORTICO ON THE FRONTAGE WAS ADDED AT THE SAME TIME, PERHAPS BECAUSE OF THE NEW MAIN LINE TRAINS NOW STOPPING AT MELTON ON THE WAY TO AND FROM NOTTINGHAM, OR BECAUSE OF THE NEW GNR/LNWR NORTH STATION OPENED IN 1879, A FAR MORE OPULANT BUILDING THAN THE M.R. STRUCTURE.

CHARLES ROBERTS WAGON REPAIRS BUILDING.

BELOW ARE TWO PHOTO'S TAKEN IN APRIL 2008 FOR COMPARISON.

BEYER GARATT LOCO AT MELTON STATION, JUNE 1956. PHOTO TONY HILL.

EXTRACT FROM WORKING TIMETABLE ISSUED 1st OCTOBER 1960.

TAKEN FROM UNDER THE ROAD BRIDGE AT MELTON STATION, A 4F HEADS FOR SAXBY WHILE A J39 STANDS IN THE LOOP.  PHOTO TONY HILL, JUNE 1956.

A CLOSER SHOT OF THE J39 TAKING WATER. PHOTO TONY HILL.

AN EXPRESS FOR THE NOTTINGHAM LINE NEARS MELTON STATION IN JUNE 1956 PHOTO TONY HILL.

A FOWLER 2-6-4T LOCO ON A LOCAL TRAIN TO LEICESTER, JUNE 1966.  PHOTO TONY HILL.

A FREIGHT RUNS THROUGH ON THE MAIN LINE BEHIND AN 8F LOCO.  PHOTO TONY HILL.

BRENTINGBY JUNCTION  BRENTINGBY JUNCTION WAS THE END OF THE FOUR TRACK SECTION FROM MELTON.

FOUR TRACK SECTION OPENED 14/8/1904. BRENTINGBY JUNCTION SIGNAL BOX OPENED 14/8/1904, CLOSED 25/6/1978 WHEN THE LOOPS WERE CUT BACK & CONTROLLED FROM MELTON.

BRENTINGY WATER TROUGHS OPENED 3/5/1905.  TROUGHS ON GOODS LOOPS REMOVED 1926, MAIN LINE TAKEN OUT OF USE AT END OF STEAM WORKING.

REMAINS AT SITE:  1904 OVERBRIDGE.

TWO VIEWS OF THE GOODS LOOPS EAST OF MELTON MOWBRAY IN 2004, FROM THE FOOTBRIDGE.

View towards Melton, showing shortened loops. Pedigree Petfoods factory in the distance.

A 4F ON A LOCAL TRAIN RUNS EAST TOWARDS SAXBY AND IS ABOUT TO CROSS THE RIVER WREAKE. PHOTO TONY HILL, JUNE 1956.

View towards Saxby; the MR lamp hut on the right is the site of the signal box.

A 'BLACK 5' PICKING UP WATER FROM BRENTINGBY TROUGHS IN JUNE 1956, RUNNING TOWARDS MELTON. PHOTO TONY HILL.

Roof is not original.

LATER VIEW WITH MODERN PORCH.

SAXBY FIRST STATION OPENED 1/2/1849. REPLACED BY JUNCTION STATION, OPENED 28/8/1892. CLOSED 6/2/1961 PASSENGERS & GOODS.

WHY THE ORIGINAL STATION DID NOT OPEN WITH THE LINE IN 1848 IS NOT CLEAR.

REMAINS AT SITE; BRICK OVERBRIDGE, JUNCTION SIGNAL BOX IN USE, ORIGINAL STATION BUILDING, ROW OF RAILWAY COTTAGES (MUCH ALTERED), FORMER LEVEL CROSSING COTTAGE. REMNANTS OF 1892 STATION BUILDING.

EXTRACT FROM THE WORKING TIMETABLE ISSUED ON 1st OCTOBER 1960.

THE 'BATTLE OF SAXBY'.

Stapleford Park is an estate lying four miles east of Melton Mowbray; in 1884 the owner was Lord Harborough. The Oakham canal, in which he was a major shareholder, skirted the estate to the north. In October1844 the Midland Railway announced the intention to build the Syston to Peterborough line, and Lord Harborough was approached as one of the major landowners on the route. He made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with the new line. 

The deadline for getting approval from Parliament was a tight one so the MR set about surveying the route without the agreement of his Lordship, and the surveying team soon came to blows with staff from the estate. Things escalated to the extent that hired thugs were brought in by both sides, culminating in a mass brawl on November 16th which the few local police could do little to prevent. The surveying chains ended up in the canal, and the railway side gave way. Court appearances continued into April 1845, from both sides, and the skirmishes entered local folklore as the 'Battle of Saxby'.

In mid 1846 the MR decided to look for an alternative route; by this time the two outer sections of the line were open and the hold up was costing a great deal of money. They had originally intended to curve the line around the Park on the route of the canal, which the MR had bought for that purpose, but now they surveyed a shorter line to the south of Stapleford, which would tunnel under the Cuckoo Plantation to hide if from the big house. Work began on this diversion, but unfortunately the tunnel was very shallow and it collapsed, taking much of the plantation with it. All work stopped and there was stalemate again.

Desperate to get the line open, the MR accepted that they would never get the cooperation of Lord Harborough so they built their line in a tight curve well to the north of Stapleford Park on land not contested by His Lordship; he was paid £22,000 by the Midland to finally resolve the dispute. It was far from ideal; the curve meant that speeds had to be kept low which became more of a problem as the years passed and expresses were more tightly timed. The station serving Saxby was built at the beginning of the curve, well away from the village but ironically very well placed for Stapleford Hall. Construction costs, on the other hand, were far less because there was now no tunnel to build, saving £35,000.

Not until 1892 was the situation fully resolved, by which time Lord Harborough was long in his grave; the curve was eased and a new line constructed very much on the alignment that had been planned in 1844, with a new junction station and a branch to meet the M&GNR at Little Bytham. The main line was four tracked around the curve as far as Wymondham Junction.

The old trackbed of Lord Harborough's Curve can still clearly be seen, a relic of the days when landowners were all powerful and even Geoge Hudson had to accept defeat.

THIS IS THE ORIGINAL S&PR STATION, PRETTY MUCH AS BUILT WITH THE MAIN LINE CURVING AROUND 'LORD HARBOROUGH'S CURVE' TO THE RIGHT.

THIS IS THE 1892 JUNCTION STATION; THE OLD LINE HAS BEEN RETAINED AS SIDINGS UP TO THE FORMER LEVEL CROSSING. THE OLD STATION BECAME THE STATION MASTER'S HOUSE.

A B1 ON AN UP FREIGHT PRIOR TO REVERSING INTO THE YARD ON 16th APRIL 1963. DEMOLITION OF THE PLATFORMS HAD ALREADY BEGUN.   PHOTO G.D. KING.

(THIS WAS TAKEN DURING A SUPERVISED MIDLAND RAILWAY SOCIETY VISIT ON A SUNDAY WHEN THERE WAS NO TRAFFIC, SO I WAS TRESPASSING WITH PERMISSION!).

ON 22/2/1958 THE 09.44 PETERBOROUGH PULLS INTO SAXBY STATION BEHIND 2P No. 40396.  H.N. JAMES.

9F No 92036 HEADING SOUTH DURING 1958.  H.N. JAMES.

CLASS D2 4-4-0 STANDS AT IN THE UP GOODS LOOP AT SAXBY DURING 1944.  H.N. JAMES.

SAXBY JUNCTION SIGNAL BOX - THE BOX WAS DEMOLISHED DURING 2008.

THE M.R. BUILT JUNCTION STATION BUILDING IN 1982.

1985....A BIT MORE ROOF HAS COLLAPSED.

IN APRIL 2008 THE OLD STATION BUILDING CLINGS TO LIFE SURROUNDED BY A SELF STORE COMPOUND.

THE ORIGINAL S&PR STATION BUILDING AT SAXBY, SUPERCEDED WHEN THE NEW JUNCTION STATION WAS OPENED WHEN LINE TO BOURNE WAS BUILT IN 1892.

ON 18/4/1958 AUSTERITY 2-8-0 90153 APPROACHES SAXBY FROM THE SOUTH.  H.N. JAMES.

ON THE SAME DAY BUT HEADING SOUTH, GARRATT 47986 ON A COAL TRAIN. H.N. JAMES.

IN ABOUT THE SAME PLACE AS THE AUSTERITY, A CLASS 58 HEADS NOTH WITH CEMENT FROM KETTON.

THE CROSSING COTTAGE BUILT WHERE THE ORIGINAL MAIN LINE CROSSEED THE SAXBY TO WHISSENDINE ROAD...A SIGNAL BOX STOOD BY THE CROSSING. THIS SECTION WAS KNOWN AS 'LORD HARBOROUGH'S CURVE', AS THE OWNER OF NEARBY STAPLEFORD HALL FORCED THE M.R. TO CURVE THEIR LINE AROUND HIS ESTATE RATHER THAN CROSSING IT.  THE LINE HERE WAS ABANDONED IN 1892 WHEN THE MAIN LINE CURVE WAS EASED AND THE NEW JUNCTION STATION WAS BUILT.

LOOKING BACK ALONG THE TRACKBED OF THE CURVE TOWARDS THE CROSSING COTTAGE.  THE TRACKBED OF THE CURVE CAN BE SEEN ON THE PLAN BELOW JOINING THE PRESENT FORMATION AT WHAT BECAME WYMONDHAM JUNCTION.

THE TRACKBED OF THE CURVE NEAT PILE BRIDGE FARM, SITE OF THE FAMOUS 'BATTLE OF SAXBY'. THE LINE CROSSED THE RIVER ON A WOODEN BRIDGE ORIGINALLY.

WYMONDHAM JUNCTION  THIS WAS THE END OF THE FOUR TRACK SECTION FROM SAXBY JUNCTION.  SIGNAL BOX OPENED 11/8/1891. CLOSED 27/11/1966.

TAKEN FROM A NORTHBOUND TRAIN, THIS PHOTO SHOWS THE TRACKBED OF THE OLD MAIN LINE ON THE RIGHT PASSING UNDER THE BRIDGE.

JUST NORTH OF WYMONDHAM JUNCTION ON 12th JUNE 1946, WITH A TRAIN FROM BRADFORD DOUBLE HE4ADED BY 'CRAB' 2-6-0 No 2724 AND 'COMPOUND' 4-4-0 No1019.   PHOTO H.N. JAMES.

WYMONDHAM LEVEL CROSSING, BETWEEN WYMONDHAM JUNCTION & WHISSENDINE.

IN APRIL 2008, THIS ATTRACTIVE HOUSE HAD JUST BEEN BUILT ON THE SITE; NETWORK RAIL HAD DEMOLISHED THE ORIGINAL COTTAGE DESPITE THE OWNERS OF THE NEW HOUSE WANTING TO BUY IT.

WHISSENDINE  OPENED AS 'WHISSENDINE LATE WYMONDHAM' 1/9/1848  CLOSED 3/19/1955 TO PASSENGERS & GOODS. 

REMAINS AT SITE: SIGNAL BOX IN USE, STATION HOUSES AS KENNELS, ONE BRICK HUT.

WHISSENDINE SIGNAL BOX SEEMS TO BE AT FIRST GLANCE A MIDLAND BOX WITH A BRICK BASE, WHICH WOULD BE MOST UNUSUAL, BUT IN FACT IT WAS A 1940 REPLACEMENT BOX WITH THE TOP MOVED FROM ASHWELL JUNCTION WHERE THE BOX HAD NEVER BEEN COMMISSIONED. WHISSENDINE HAD TWO PREVIOUS BOXES, BOTH STANDING ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LEVEL CROSSING AS SHOWN ON THE PLAN.

IN APRIL 2008 NOT A LOT HAD CHANGED OTHER THAN NEW SIGNAL BOX WINDOWS. THE RAILWAY HOUSES HAVE BEEN RESTORED AND NOW HOUSE A KENNELS.