Grimsby engine shed

Grimsby
Location
Location	Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire, England
Coordinates	53°34′22″N 0°04′34″W / 53.5727°N 0.0762°W
Characteristics
Owner	Closed
Type	Steam
History
Opened	Before 1889
Closed	Possibly 1912, became sub-shed of Immingham
Original	Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Central Railway
Post-grouping	LNER

Passenger lines of
North East Lincolnshire

Legend

Hull Corporation Pier

Immingham West Jn

Humber Road Jn

Eastfield Road

Ulceby North Jn

Dock Entrance

Immingham Dock

Immingham Town

&

South Humberside

Main Line

West Marsh Jn

East Marsh Jn

East Lincolnshire Rlwy

to Boston

Kingsway

(CCLR)

Discovery

Lakeside Central

North Sea Lane

Humberston

North Sea Lane

Beach

South Sea Lane

Lincolnshire Coast Lt Rly

1960–1985

Grimsby engine shed was a railway locomotive maintenance depot located southeast of Grimsby Docks station in North East Lincolnshire.^[2]

History

Grimsby is an ancient town which was hugely invested in and enlarged by the railways - notably the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway - in the third quarter of the 19th Century.^[3]^[4]^[5]

Specialist sources agree that the date the shed opened is unknown.^[1]^[6] It first appears on an OS map published in 1888, where it seems to have had six "roads" (tracks), though all later maps show three tracks under the same general layout. Another source, with local knowledge, states that the shed had six tracks.^[7]^[8] In 2019 the matter was settled as six roads by a published map and photographs.^[9] It had a coaling stage, a turntable and a water tank. In 1898 a water softening plant was installed,^[10] the first of its kind on the Great Central Railway.

The shed was eclipsed by the opening of Immingham engine shed in 1912. Despite being five miles away, Immingham soon took over providing long-distance locomotives, leaving Grimsby to service (notably rake out ash, top up with coal and water and give the once-over) locomotives which had come into the docks and were getting ready to go out again and to meet the day-to-day needs of the port's large fleet of "pilot" (shunting and short distance) locomotives. At some point in or after 1912 - again agreed as unknown - Grimsby shed became a sub-shed of Immingham.

Grimsby shed building deteriorated over the years. By 1932 its western gable had gone. In the 1950s the coaling stage and shed roof were demolished, as well as the eastern gable. Thereafter locomotives were stabled in the open.^[11]

Locomotive types particularly associated with the shed were ex-GNR Class K3, ex-GCR Class J63, ex-GNR Class J50 and, latterly, LNER Class J94^[12]^[7]^[13] until dieselisation around 1957.^[14]

Lack of clarity surrounds the shed's closure. One source gives 1957,^[7] another gives 1961, with demolition by 1962 ^[1] yet a 1963 ABC Combined Volume still shows both New Holland and Grimsby as subsheds of Immingham.^[15] In 1958 a fourth source wrote "..there is no motive power depot in the town."^[16]

By 2015 the shed had been demolished and the site built over as part of the Railway Street Industrial Estate.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Griffiths & Smith 2000, p. 253.
^ King & Hewins 1989, p. 14.
^ Ludlam 1996, p. 49.
^ Dow 1985, Chapters 9-13.
^ King & Hewins 1989, p. 19.
^ King & Hewins 1989, p. 6.
^ ^a ^b ^c Bates & Bairstow 2005, p. 22.
^ King & Hewins 1989, Inside back cover.
^ King 2019, Front Cover and pp.37-38.
^ Dow 1965, p. 328.
^ King & Hewins 1989, p. 8.
^ King & Hewins 1989, Photos 139-141.
^ Ludlam 2016, p. 42.
^ King 2019, p. 47.
^ ABC 2006, ER Shedcodes.
^ Allen 1958, pp. 315–6.

Sources

ABC (2006) [1963]. ABC British Railways Motive Power Combined Volume Spring 1963. Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN 978-0-7110-3168-5.
Allen, G. Freeman (June 1958). Allen, G. Freeman (ed.). "Day Trip to Grimsby: Part Two". Trains Illustrated. XI (117). Hampton Court, Surrey: Ian Allan Ltd.
Bates, Chris; Bairstow, Martin (2005). Railways in North Lincolnshire. Leeds: Martin Bairstow. ISBN 978-1-871944-30-3.
Dow, George (1985) [1959]. Great Central, Volume One: The Progenitors, 1813-1863. Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN 978-0-7110-1468-8. OCLC 60021205.
Dow, George (1965). Great Central, Volume Three: Fay Sets the Pace, 1900–1922. Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN 978-0-7110-0263-0. OCLC 500447049.
Griffiths, Roger; Smith, Paul (2000). The Directory of British Engine Sheds and Principal Locomotive Servicing Points: 2 North Midlands, Northern England and Scotland. OPC Railprint. ISBN 978-0-86093-548-3. OCLC 59558605.
King, Paul K (2019). The Railways of North-east Lincolnshire Part 1 The Engine Sheds and their Allocations. Grimsby: Pyewipe Publications. ISBN 978-1-9164603-0-0.
King, Paul K; Hewins, Dave R (1989). Scenes from the Past: 5 The Railways around Grimsby, Cleethorpes, Immingham and North-east Lincolnshire. Stockport: Foxline Publishing. ISBN 978-1-870119-04-7.
Ludlam, A.J. (2016). Immingham - A Lincolnshire Railway Centre (Lincolnshire Railway Centres). Ludborough: Lincolnshire Wolds Railway Society. ISBN 978-0-9954610-0-0.
Ludlam, A.J. (1996). Railways to New Holland and the Humber Ferries. Headington: The Oakwood Press. ISBN 978-0-85361-494-4. LP 198.