Grimsby District Light Railway
Following an inquiry at the Royal Hotel Grimsby on 6th February 1905, the Light Railway Commissioners granted the Grimsby District Light Railways Order 1906. This authorised a standard gauge railway commencing at a triangular junction in Victoria Street at Freeport Wharf on the Great Grimsby Street Tramways.[1] It was then to run along Corporation Road and then across open country approximately half-a-mile inland from the Humber Bank to Immingham Dock,[2] which was to be under construction between 1906 and 1912.
Firstly a line was built for construction materials and trains for workers building the dock (the Navvy Mail)[3] which was operated by the dock contractor.[4] Initially this ran from Pyewipe to the edge of the dock estate. It was taken over by the railway company from 3rd January 1910, which operated a limited passenger service until the electric tramway opened.[5]
The electric tramway was built parallel to the light railway for most of its length and opened as far as the road to the docks on the 15th May 1912 and was extended onto the docks on the 17th November 1913.[6] The line started as a street tramway in Corporation Road, Grimsby at the bridge across the Alexandra Dock to Freeport Wharf. The triangular connection with the Great Grimsby Street Tramways was not built as the bridge was not strong enough and was not rebuilt until the 1928 by which time the life of the Great Grimsby Street Tramway system was coming to the end of its life.[7] A branch onto Queens Road, Immingham was built but either never operated or only operated occasionally, and eventually the track was lifted in 1955.[8] The street tramway length in Grimsby was withdrawn on the 30th June 1956[9] and the whole service closed on the 1st July 1961.[10]
Further Information: The Grimsby and Immingham Light Railway; The Tramway and Railway World, 4th April 1912, p239-245
See Also
Sources of Information
- Bates, Chris and Bairstow, Martin; Railways in North Lincolnshire, Martin Bairstow, Leeds, 2005
- Price, J H, The Tramways of Grimsby and Cleethorpes, LRTA, undated
- Crossland, G J and Turner, C E; Immingham, A History of the Deep Water Port; T & C Publishing, 2012
- King and Hewins; The Railways around Grimsby and Cleethorpes