Lincolnshire potato railways

The Lincolnshire potato railways were a network of private, 1 ft 11 1⁄2 in (597 mm) narrow gauge[1] farm railways which existed in the English county of Lincolnshire in the mid-20th century, for the purposes of transporting the annual potato crop between the fields and the nearest standard-gauge main line railhead.

Example Potato Railway at Vine House Farm, Deeping St Nicholas

Major systems

There were two major systems of potato railways:[2] one located near the village of Nocton (the "Nocton Estate Light Railway" south of Lincoln),[3] centred on Nocton and Dunston railway station; the other to the north of Holbeach in the south of the county,[4] serving Fleet and Sutton Bridge stations. There were other, smaller systems elsewhere in Lincolnshire, for example at Deeping St Nicholas.[5]

Closure

All of the potato railways were closed by 1969; their duties taken over by farm lorries. Some of the rolling stock and track from the Nocton system have been preserved at the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway near Skegness.[6]

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Notes
  1. Nocton Estate - The Lincolnshire Potato Railways
  2. Squires, Stewart E. The Lincolnshire potato railways. Oakwood Press, 1987, ISBN 0-85361-352-4
  3. Nocton in Lincolnshire, 2007, Available from: http://nocton.blogspot.com/2007/05/nocton-estate-lincolnshire-potato.html
  4. Sutton Bridge: the potato railways, 2006, Available from: http://www.suttonbridge.eshire.net/blank_3.html Archived 14 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  5. Potato railway at Vine House Farm, 2006, Available from: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/281360
  6. Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway, 2009, Available from: http://www.lincolnshire-coast-light-railway.co.uk/ Archived 14 January 2013 at Archive.today

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