View source for Eastern Entrance to Immingham Dock electric railway station

{{Short description|Former railway station in England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2018}}
{{Infobox station
| name                = Eastern Entrance to Immingham Dock
| status              = Disused
| image               =
| borough             = [[Immingham]], [[North East Lincolnshire]]
| country             = England
| coordinates         = {{coord|53.6210|-0.1770|type:railwaystation_region:GB|display=inline,title}}
| grid_name           = [[Ordnance Survey National Grid|Grid reference]]
| grid_position       = {{gbmapscaled|TA206153|25|TA206153}}
| platforms           = 0
| original            = [[Great Central Railway]]
| pregroup            = Great Central Railway
| years               = September 1916
| events              = opened (first in Bradshaw)
| years1              = July 1920
| events1             = closed (last in Bradshaw){{sfn|Quick|2009|page=224}}
}}
{{Grimsby & Immingham Electric Railway|collapse=yes}}
{{Passenger Lines of North East Lincolnshire|collapse=yes}}
'''Eastern Entrance to Immingham Dock electric railway station''' was a temporary halt {{convert|62|ch|km}} by route south east of the western terminus of the inter-urban{{sfn|Feather|1993|page=1}} [[Grimsby and Immingham Electric Railway]] which ran from [[Grimsby (Corporation Bridge) electric railway station|Corporation Bridge]], Grimsby with a reversal at what was euphemistically called [[Immingham Town electric railway station|Immingham Town]].{{sfn|Ludlam|2006|pp=426 & 428}}
The halt was a request stop. It appeared in Bradshaw's Guides from September 1916 to July 1920{{sfn|Bradshaw|1917|page=710}}{{sfn|Quick|2009|page=224}} and in the [[Great Central Railway|GCR]] timetable dated 5 May 1919 .{{sfn|Pask|1999|p=3 & 17}} A printer's proof ticket shows the halt as "Eastern Ent. to Imm Dock".{{sfn|Pask|1999|p=15}}
==Overview==
The electric railway was built primarily to carry workers between [[Grimsby]] and [[Immingham Dock]] which the [[Great Central Railway]] had built on a greenfield site in a sparsely populated area. The line was built by the Great Central and remained in railway ownership up to closure in 1961. It therefore appeared in railway timetables{{sfn|Bradshaw|1985|page=717}} and it was possible to buy through tickets between any of the stops on the line and anywhere on the national railway network,{{sfn|Price|1991|page=112}} though there never was any physical connection with any conventional track, nor with the tramways in Grimsby and Cleethorpes.
In modern parlance the vehicles would be described as trams, but they were typically referred to locally and in publications such as Bradshaw as "cars"{{sfn|Bradshaw|1917|page=710}}{{sfn|Bradshaw|1985|page=717}} or "tramcars", with related things being called names such as "tramcar halt" and "tramcar bridge." "Car" was always a more common short form than "tram."
==Location and facilities==
Eastern Entrance to Immingham Dock tramcar station was situated exactly where its name implies, at the eastern boundary of dock land at Habrough Marsh Drain bridge three quarters of a mile from the terminus near the dock's lock gates. At this point road and rail merged, with the tracks changing to grooved tramway common throughout all road tramways.{{sfn|Price|1991|page=77}} This spot was and remains the eastern boundary of dock property. In 2012 this was a continuously staffed entrance checkpoint with barriers to road vehicles and pedestrians. In the 1950s and 1960s the spot was completely unmarked, with not so much as a sign to indicate entering or leaving dock property.
The halt was provided here from mid-1916 to July 1920,{{sfn|Bradshaw|1917|page=710}}{{sfn|Quick|2009|page=224}} but its purpose is unclear. It may have been a version of the modern checkpoint or to serve works which ended with the war.
The line was a tramway, no platforms ever existed at any of the stopping places; passengers were expected to board and alight from the roadway or trackside cinders according to the location. The "stations" were much more commonly referred to a s "halts" or "stopping places." Passengers bought tickets on board from the conductor.
The line's two termini - [[Grimsby (Corporation Bridge) electric railway station|Corporation Bridge]] and Immingham Dock - were the only halts on the line to attempt anything along the lines of railway nameboards, both proclaimed themselves in very large letters to be a "TRAMWAY STATION."{{sfn|Crossland|Turner|2012|pp=30 & 31}}
==The line from the station==
The line from the terminus eastwards to the dock property boundary was conventional double track running alongside the dock road, giving the appearance of a conventional railway, except for the absence of fencing between road and rail.{{sfn|Bett|Gillham|page=62}}
At Habrough Marsh Drain bridge three quarters of a mile from the terminus near the dock's lock gates. road and rail merged, with the tracks changing to grooved tramway common throughout all road tramways.{{sfn|Price|1991|page=77}}
This spot was and remains the eastern boundary of dock property and was the site of Eastern Entrance to Immingham Dock tramcar halt.
From this point road and tramtracks climbed southeastwards up one of the two "hills" on the whole line, i.e. the bridge over the conventional [[Grimsby District Light Railway]] line near Immingham East Junction.{{sfn|Kent|1959|p=566}} This bridge, which was in regular, heavy road use in 2013, was known locally as "tramcar bridge."{{sfn|Price|1991|page=81}} At the other side of the bridge was "Tramcar Halt", or, formally, [[Immingham Town electric railway station|Immingham Town]].
==Services==
Unusually among British tramways services ran round the clock, particularly to provide for railway workers based at [[Immingham engine shed]], whose duties often involved starting or finishing at unsocial hours. Traffic was highly peaked, with convoys of tramcars leaving and arriving to match shift changes at the dock. It was normal for several tramcars to rest at Dock station between peaks.{{sfn|King|Hewins|1989|loc=Photos 57 & 58}}{{sfn|Bett|Gillham|page=61}}
In 1956 over a million passengers used the line{{sfn|Price|1991|page=94}} and even with deliberate rundown a quarter of a million used it in its last twelve months up to closure in July 1961.
==Closure==
The line took some years to die, being cut back at the Grimsby end in 1956 then reduced to peak services only in 1959, when it disappeared from Bradshaw and through ticketing beyond the line was withdrawn.{{sfn|Bates|Bairstow|2005|page=85}} Formal closure of the line and Dock tramcar station came on Monday 3 July 1961, with the last tramcars running on Saturday 1 July 1961 when a convoy of six tramcars set off, nominally at 14:03. The last tramcar of this convoy and therefore the last through the site of the halt was Number 4.{{sfn|Price|1991|page=101}}
==Aftermath==
The first track on the line to be removed was at Dock tramcar station, to give increased parking space. The process of demolition was piecemeal and even in 2013 many hints of the line remained, such as spun concrete masts near Tramcar Bridge. No trace of Eastern Entrance to Immingham Dock Halt remained.
{{center|'''Former Services'''}}
{{Disused Rail Start}}
{{Rail line
|previous=[[Immingham Dock electric railway station|Immingham Dock]]
|next=[[Immingham Town electric railway station|Immingham Town]]
|route=[[Great Central Railway]]<br /><small>[[Grimsby and Immingham Electric Railway]]</small>
|col={{GCR colour}} }}
{{end}}
== References ==
{{reflist|colwidth=20em}}
===Sources===
*{{cite book |last1=Bates |first1=Chris |last2=Bairstow |first2=Martin |title=Railways in North Lincolnshire |year=2005 |publisher=Martin Bairstow |location=Leeds |isbn=1-871944-30-9 }}
*{{cite book| title = The Tramways of South Yorkshire and Humberside |first1=W. H. |last1=Bett |first2=J. C. |last2=Gillham |publisher= Light Railway Transport League}}
*{{cite book |last=Bradshaw |first=George |title= Bradshaw's Railway Guide |year=1917 |publisher=Bradshaw }}
*{{cite book |last=Bradshaw |first=George |title=Bradshaw's July 1922 Railway Guide |year=1985 |orig-year=1922 |publisher=David & Charles |location=Newton Abbott }}
*{{Butt-Stations}}
*{{cite book |last1=Crossland |first1=G J |last2=Turner |first2=C E |title=Immingham A History of the Deep Water Port |year=2012 | orig-year=2006 |publisher=T&C Publishing |isbn=978-0-9543051-2-3 }}
*{{cite book |last=Dow |first=George |title=Great Central, Volume Three: Fay Sets the Pace, 1900-1922 |year=1965 |publisher=[[Ian Allan Publishing|Ian Allan]] |location=Shepperton |isbn=0-7110-0263-0 }}
*{{cite journal| title = Great Central Inter-Urban |first=T.|last= Feather|journal = Forward| publisher =  Great Central Railway Society| issn= 0141-4488|date=February 1993 }}
*{{cite journal |last=Kent |first=L. |editor1-first=B.W.C. |editor1-last=Cooke |date=August 1959 |title=The Grimsby & Immingham Tramway |journal=[[The Railway Magazine]] |volume=105| issue=700 |publisher=Tothill Press Ltd |location= London, SW1 |issn=0033-8923 }}
*{{cite book |last1=King |first1=Paul K. |last2=Hewins |first2=Dave R. |title=Scenes from the Past: 5 The Railways around Grimsby, Cleethorpes, Immingham and North-east Lincolnshire |year=1989 |publisher=Foxline Publishing |location=Stockport |isbn=1-870119-04-5 }}
*{{cite book |last=Ludlam |first=A.J. |title=Railways to New Holland and the Humber Ferries, LP 198 |year=1996 |publisher=The Oakwood Press |location=Headington, Oxford |isbn=0-85361-494-6 }}
*{{cite journal |last=Ludlam |first=A.J. |editor1-first=Rex |editor1-last=Kennedy |date=July 2006 |title=Immingham-Gateway to the Continent |journal=Steam Days |issue=203 |publisher=Redgauntlet Publications |location=Bournemouth |issn= 0269-0020 }}
*{{cite book|title= The Tickets of the Grimsby & Immingham Electric Railway|first = Brian |last = Pask |publisher= The Transport Ticket Society |location=Sevenoaks |isbn=0-903209-33-0 |year= 1999 }}
*{{cite book| title = The Tramways of Grimsby, Immingham & Cleethorpes| first = J. H.|last= Price|publisher= Light Rail Transit Association|year=1991 |isbn=0-948106-10-7 }}
*{{cite book |last=Quick |first=Michael |title=Railway Passenger Stations in Great Britain - a Chronology |date=September 2009 |publisher=Railway & Canal Historical Society |isbn=978-0-901461-57-5 }}
==Further material==
*{{cite book |last=Anderson |first=Paul |title=Railways of Lincolnshire |year=1992 |publisher=Irwell Press |location=Oldham |isbn=1-871608-30-9 }}
*{{citation| publisher = B&R Video Productions|volume = 118| title= Electric Traction Archive}}, contains a fine archive section on the tramway
*{{citation|publisher = Online Video, available via Great Central Railway Society |title = The Passing of Pyewipe}}, solely about the tramways of Immingham, Grimsby & Cleethorpes
==External links==
*[http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=15&lat=53.6263&lon=-0.1943&layers=6 Immingham as a green field site before the dock via ''National Library of Scotland'']
*[http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=15&lat=53.6310&lon=-0.1895&layers=10 Immingham with the dock via ''National Library of Scotland'']
*[http://maps.nls.uk/view/101587217 Immingham Dock electric terminus on an OS map surveyed in 1930 via ''National Library of Scotland'']
*[http://www.railmaponline.com/UKIEMap.php The tramway in green via ''Rail Map Online'']
*{{cite web| url =http://www.lner.info/locos/Electric/immingham.shtml| title = The Grimsby & Immingham Tramway| work = www.lner.info}}
*[http://www.davesrailpics.bravehost.com/pyewipe/tram.htm Tramway photos via ''davesrailpics'']
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20151211120033/http://lths.lutsociety.org.uk/library/PDF-160-1.pdf The Tramway via ''Local Transport History Soc'']
*[http://www.thornerailway.org.uk/page22.html Tramway remains via ''Thorne Railway'']
*[https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2387152 Tramcars at Immingham Dock via ''geograph'']
{{Closed stations Lincolnshire}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Immingham Dock Electric Railway Station}}
[[Category:Disused railway stations in the Borough of North East Lincolnshire]]
[[Category:Former Great Central Railway stations]]
[[Category:Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1916]]
[[Category:Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1920]]
[[Category:1916 establishments in England]]
[[Category:1920 disestablishments in England]]
[[Category:Immingham]]