New look for Railway Station?

Recently we included an item about the former Station Chef buffet at Skegness which is now one of a number of defunct buildings on the station, which include an old gents toilet, parcel office, booking office (closed 20 years ago) and a Station Master's residence. All have been derelict for some years now, and despite attempts to find new uses, it's apparent that most (if not all) are now beyond repair, and any renovation work would almost certainly not justify the major expense.

There have been plans afoot to demolish these to possibly make way for retail units/new car park and taxi rank etc, and demolition was initially planned earlier this year. The Skegness Standard has now picked up on the story and their article can be read by clicking here.

The Stationmaster's residence as it was in 1975 when occupied by the widow of the late Mr Howden, the last Stationmaster in Skegness.

By comparison a photo taken today, the site now is very overgrown and the building has suffered at the hands of vandals.

The plans would see the demolition of all the buildings on the right of the photo. The nearest is not derelict and currently used as a staff mess room

Whilst Network Rail's plans for a new entrance can only be an improvement on what is currently an eyesore, it's a pity that the investment didn't take place much earlier, a good example of what could have been done retaining the character of a historic station whilst modernising it can be found at Eastbourne, as illustrated in the photo below.

Funny Old World

From the Skegness Standard today:

Huttoft man outraged when bus girls used garden as toilet

A HUTTOFT man was outraged when a group of girls urinated in his garden after being let off a Stagecoach bus in the village.

Eric Kingsland, 47, could not believe it when a group of girls, aged about 19, got off the number nine bus outside his house and used his garden as a toilet at around 8pm on Friday, September 18.

He said: "I was gobsmacked. There's a bus stop about 150 yards away, but (the driver] pulled up to let them have a wee.

"I got in my car and followed the bus.

"I flagged a policeman down in Chapel St Leonards, but he said there's nothing I can do; it's not an offence because he didn't see it! It's ludicrous."

Mr Kingsland, of Mumby Road, said the girls apologised, but he was more angry with the driver and the policeman.

Stagecoach managing director Gary Nolan said: "He stopped the bus because one of the girls said she felt sick. He thought she was being sick, obviously had he known she wanted to do that there's no way he would have stopped.

"We don't support that sort of thing, but when she said she felt sick he did what you would expect. What happened then is out of our hands."

Insp Terry Ball said: "The bus driver was given strong words of advice about stopping the bus and allowing people to get off at an inappropriate location. The officer assures me the bus driver apologised profusely at the time of the stop, both to the complainant and the police officer.

"The females concerned were also given strong words of advice and warned about their conduct by the officer at the scene. They too were very apologetic and realised their behaviour was inappropriate and un-ladylike."

MCW's 2

A line up of MCW's between duties at the bus station today. From front to back are 15991, 15977 and 15934

Early Queue

Even though the winter railway timetable came into effect on 13th September, people continue to turn up at Skegness station well ahead of the first scheduled train service of the day at 1408, presumably not having checked their return times beforehand or misreading the timetable. The station "technically" is open around an hour before the 1408, although the snack bar proprietor has opened the premises early.

This was the scene at noon today with people queuing 2 hours ahead of the fist train!
The elderly lady at the front I had spoken to earlier who was travelling to Nottingham, arrived three hours early to make sure she caught her train!

More sensible people nip to the nearby Wetherspoons for a breakfast sooner than wait for hours!

In fairness, the winter Sunday train service does leave a lot to be desired and should more sensibly have departures between 1000 - 1800.

National Express at Butlins 25/09/09

660 (Bradford)

OUI 9979 (Linburg)
OUI 9980 (Linburg)

661 (Birmingham)

Y3 AEJ (Skyline)
PN04 PFY (Skyline)
TJI 1679 (Grayscroft) - duplicate Butlins to Leicester













662 (Liverpool)

Y468 HUA (Selwyn)
SF05 XZM (Coachmaster, of Thurmaston) - duplicate to Derby













663 (Newcastle)

FJ08 KNV (Go Northern)














664 (Preston)

PO55 OWY (Travellers Choice)

Memory Lane Coaches

A flying visit to Memory Lane Coaches today, who are based at Old Bolingbroke. In less than ideal lighting conditions is J522 YLS.

Megabus

A rather unusual site at the Stagecoach Skegness depot today, two Megabus coaches 52621 (S901 CCD) and 52617 (S457 BCE), presumably there in preparation to work the Rail-Replacement services between Skegness and Boston when the line is closed due to engineering work next month. There is also a third Megabus coach, at present unidentified. Sorry for the poor quality photo below, will hopefully obtain a better on over the next few days.

Class 67

Route learning ahead of next months blockade continues, and this week has seen the unusual use of a class 67 (67003). This is not the first time a member of the class has reached the terminus, that honour went to 67005 on a similar route learner on 15th September 2008, and 67027 the following day. It was then realised that these locomotives technically were "too heavy" to travel over the Boston - Skegness route, and 66's took over the route learners. Hence another appearance of one at Skegness is rather unusual! The error being discovered, it was replaced by 66119.

67003 illustrated at Skegness during its overnight stop at Skegness on platform 4

An extract from Network Rail's document which shows the route clearance for locomotives on the Boston - Skegness route (for the full document, please click here). This clearly illustrates that the class 67's are not passed for operation along the route! (Please click on image for a larger version)

National Express at Butlins 18/09/09

660 (Bradford)

OUI 5446 (Linburg)
OUI 9979 (Linburg)

661 (Birmingham)

YR51 HCR (Harding, of Redditch)
P425 EAB (Ausden Clark)

662 (Liverpool)

352 STG (Selwyn)

663 (Newcastle)

JCN 822 (Go Northern)

664 (Preston)

FJ56 POV (Travellers Choice)

Boston in 1975

Lincolnshire Road Car's Bristol FS6G 2536 (DFE 962D) is seen at Boston on a duplicate service 57. This was one year prior to the bus station opening in Lincoln Lane when all LRCC services used the Market Place as a terminus. Thankfully such unhelpful practices as putting "DUPLICATE" as a destination are a thing of the past.

Skegness Air Taxis

A very rare photo turned up in my archive of GXD 640, a Bedford OB which originated from the London area. The service ran from Skegness to the air strip near Butlins in Ingoldmells. The photo illustrates the vehicle in summer 1963 whilst at the Scarborough Avenue terminus in Skegness. The air strip itself closed 16 years ago.

A photo of the same location in 2009

Where are they now? (1)

MCW double-deck coaches once regularly worked Midland Fox's X89 express service from Leicester to Mablethorpe. The photograph illustrates C52 VJU at the Skegness bus station in 1989. It was sold to London Pride where it was used on sightseeing tours, and more recently with City Sightseeing in Glasgow, and is illustrated below in 2006 (Photo: Glen Fergusson).

Then & Now 1: The Station Chef

Those who can remember travelling by train to Skegness back to the late 80's and early 90's, will probably remember the Station Chef buffet. It managed to survive one closure by Travellers Fare in 1983:

It was subsequently rented out as a cafe/bar by the then BR Property Board, and subsequently was in the hands of private enterprise (initially Mrs. A Miles). Unfortunately, this was only to be a stay of execution and it was eventually closed for good a decade later, when it was latterly run by the Late Mrs M Wilson.

The Station Chef Chef c.1986.

The Station Chef as it is today (a shot from the identical position to above was prevented by a notice board!). Despite attempts to mask the dereliction by having murals on the boards, it's still a very depressing scene. A nearby kiosk continues to serve refreshments on the station, but is nothing anywhere near to the scale of the former buffet. The original now is slowly deteriorating and plays host to a large pigeon population. It's fate can best be described as "uncertain".
Returning back to when the Station Chef was open, this c.1989 photo shows proprietor Mrs A Miles with Assistant Andrea man the platform refreshment trolley. Behind are an interesting collection of "Heritage" dmu's!

Taken at the same time as the above, the presence of two BT Police Officers indicates this was taken on a Bank Holiday - a wet day by the look of the previous photograph!
Mrs Miles converted the rear of the buffet to a Tea and Beer garden, unfortunately the weather on this occasion was not ideal! Plans to take a contemporary comparison shot were scuppered as the area is now so overgrown as to make photography impossible!

One item which has survived is this Refreshment Trolley which now resides in the National Railway Museum.

South West Trains

South West Trains 158883 was noted at Skegness today working the 1315 departure to Nottingham. The unit is on loan to East Midlands Trains.

MCW's

As this could be the last year of the Stagecoach MCW open toppers, a few photographs of some of them are shown below.

15994 at the Hardy's Animal Farm terminus on 5th September

Caravans and amusement arcades are a familiar scene along this part of the coast as 15958 makes its way back to Skegness on 5th September

15972 returns to Skegness along the Roman Bank at Ingoldmells on 5th September

It has been rare for open toppers to stray off the normal service 3 routes this summer. 15994 proved to be an exception on 5th September when it worked the 1710 service 1 to Chapel St Leonards.

15977 at the Bus Station on 6th September

15934 on 6th September as it approaches the new Stagecoach depot in Middlemarsh. This was to be a historically significant run as it was the last ever open topper to leave the old Grosvenor Road depot and the first to work into the new one!

15972 at the Bus Station today. One oddity is that unlike the other MCW's, the blinds do not have the detination Anchor Lane, hence "VICKERS POINT" being displayed!

Willoughby Revisited

A while back we did a feature of what remained of the former junction station at Willoughby (click here to see it). Another visit today revealed a few more artefacts.

The former station house still retains it's railway association

Some of the platform still survives supporting a garden wall of an adjoining property

The substantial goods shed still remains.....

...along with one piece of old rolling stock!
Looking from the level crossing, the trackbed towards Grimsby and the station was located immediately after the crossing. The wall on the left is stood on what remains of one of the platforms (see above)

A late c.19th century photograph from the same position (Photo: DNR)
The trackbed looking south
A reminder of what Willoughby once looked like. This 1959 photograph shows the well kept station and the East Lincolnshire main line to Grimsby. The branch to Mablethorpe can be seen diverging to the right in the distance (Photo: HB Priestley)

Route Learning

From 3rd October until 1st November, the trains service between Skegness and Boston will be suspended whilst engineering work (involving substantial track renewal) takes place. Bus replacements will be used during the period to connect with trains at Boston. This will bring a number of engineering trains to Skegness and yesterday saw the first of the driver familiarisation runs taking place from Toton to Skegness, in this instance using 66170. The locomotive remained overnight and is illustrated below this morning where it was stabled at the top end of platform 4.

National Express at Butlins 14/09/09

660 (Bradford)

OUI 5446 (Linburg)
OUI 9880 (Linburg)

662 (Liverpool)

325 STG (Selwyn)

663 (Newcastle)

Y785 MFT (Go Northern)












664 (Preston)

PO55 OWY (Travellers Choice)

Lawton's

Parked in a layby on the A158 is Leyland Olympian/ECW OFS 783Y, owned by Lawton (or Stickney). It was new to Lothian Regional Transport and more recently with Stephenson (of Rochford). It still retains that operator's livery and, until recently, also retained the fleetname! (Apologies for the poor technical quality of the photo). A rare example now of an ECW bodied PCV in active service in the county.

BR Van

Some miles away from the nearest railway, this ex BR Plank Sided van was discovered today at a property on Fen Road in Stickford. One wonders how many of these have ended up in use as sheds!

...a new depot opens

Today saw the opening of the new Stagecoach depot at Middlemarsh, the remaining vehicles being transferred from the old depot earlier today.

15934 was the last open top bus to leave the Grosvenor Road depot and the first to use the new one! It is illustrated near the new premises whilst making the journey between the two locations

26124 was the very last vehicle to leave the Grosvenor Road depot and is illustrated approaching the new premises.

Vehicles at the new depot