Melton Constable Station, train and East Signalbox
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Melton Constable Station, train and East Signalbox by Ben Brooksbank as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Melton Constable Station, train and East Signalbox
Image: © Ben Brooksbank Taken: 15 Nov 1958
View eastwards, towards Great Yarmouth (ahead) and Norwich (right). The Class B12/3 4-6-0 taking water is the 13.11 Peterborough to Yarmouth Beach. Melton Constable was the centre of the former Midland & Great Northern (M&GN) system, which extended from Saxby, Bourne, Spalding, Peterborough and Kings Lynn in the west to Sheringham and Cromer, Yarmouth and Norwich in the east. The system to an extent duplicated other lines and the traffic it carried was relatively light - except on Summer Saturdays. Moreover the Conservative Government desperately needed funds after their commitment to inflated wages after the 1955 ASLEF Strike and for the 1955 Modernisation Plan. Therefore, long before 'Beeching', the M&GN system was closed almost entirely as early as 2/3/59 - four months after this photograph. All that was left here was a service to Sheringham that continued until 6/4/64 (28/12/64 for freight), after which all the considerable railway facilities at Melton Constable disappeared almost without trace.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
52.856156
Longitude
1.033163