page_title: Spalding railway station
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Spalding railway station / History
caption_attribution_description: Pre Grouping railway junction around Bourne, Little Bytham, March, Spalding, Stamford &amp; Wansford; Lynn &amp; South Lynn
context_page_description: Spalding railway station serves the town of Spalding, Lincolnshire, England.
context_section_description: Spalding gained its first rail links to Peterborough, Boston and Lincoln in 1848, courtesy of the Great Northern Railway (GNR) who built their main line from London to Doncaster through the town; Spalding railway station opened on 17 October 1848. This route was superseded by the direct line via Grantham within four years, but it remained well used by traffic heading towards Louth and Grimsby over the former East Lincolnshire Railway.
  The GNR subsequently added a line eastwards to Sutton Bridge via Holbeach (the Norwich & Spalding Railway) in stages between 1858 and 1862, a westward route to Bourne in 1866 and another to March the following year in an attempt to thwart the ambitions of the competing Great Eastern Railway (GER).  These efforts did not succeed however and the company eventually agreed to work these routes jointly with the Midland Railway (the former pair forming the backbone of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway system) and the GER (March line) by the beginning of the 1870s. The collaboration between GNR and GER also led to the construction of the last route out of the town, the GE&GN Joint line to Sleaford which opened to traffic on 1 August 1882.
  By the end of the nineteenth century the town had become a major rail crossroads and the station had grown to reflect this, having more than doubled in size from its opening half a century earlier. It would also later become a popular destination in its own right, with the annual Tulip Festival bringing excursion trains into the town from all over the country from the late 1950s onwards.
  British Railways was formed on 1 January 1948, and Spalding station was renamed Spalding Town on 1 December 1948. The Midland & Great Northern routes into the town were heavily used, particularly in the summer months, well into the 1950s, but they were the first to suffer from the BR economy drive of the time, closing to passengers on 28 February 1959. The East Lincolnshire line to Boston was to suffer a similar fate a decade later, with the last trains to Grimsby and Peterborough running on 3 October 1970.  This left the Joint Line as the only surviving route through the town; typically just three trains per day each way between Lincoln and March/Cambridge called at the station in this period.  However, its status as a junction was restored within months, the line to Peterborough regaining a limited (thrice daily, peak hours only) passenger service from 7 June 1971.
  The Joint line remained a busy freight artery for the next few years, serving as one as the main outlets for the marshalling yard complex at Whitemoor but the general decline in freight traffic in the area would ultimately lead to the Spalding to March portion's closure to all traffic on 27 November 1982. This left the town effectively with the same rail access as it had back in 1848, albeit with trains to Lincoln running via Sleaford rather than Boston.  Services to and from Peterborough did improve following the closure of the March line, with the existing service from Lincoln diverted to start and terminate there and some extra trains being added to the timetable.
  The station, known in steam days as Spalding Town, was honoured on 3 May 2002 when a main line locomotive was dedicated to it. Class 31 diesel No. 31106, owned by Cambridgeshire businessman and enthusiast Howard Johnston, who was born nearby, arrived on a Tulip Parade day special train, and a short stopover was arranged for Colin Fisher, Chairman of South Holland District Council, to unveil the cast Spalding Town nameplate (which includes the authority's crest within it) on the side of the engine. He was also presented with a replica plate as a permanent reminder of the occasion. Although intended for public display, this has not yet taken place.
caption: A 1903 Railway Clearing House map of railways in the vicinity of Spalding (upper centre)
exif: {}