Gainsborough Lea Road railway station

Opening

The first station at Gainsborough was the current Central station opened on 2 April 1849 by the Manchester Sheffield and Lincoln railway. Initially a terminus this became a through station when the line was extended to Woodhouse and Retford on 16 July 1849. On 9 April 1849 a single-track line built by the Great Northern Railway (GNR) from Lincoln to west of the station and GNR trains serving Gainsborough reversed here. Following the opening of the MSLR line to Retford, GNR services then ran to Retford although the reversal into Gainsborough Central was still required.

The GNR was keen to extend their line from Gainsborough to Doncaster and parliamentary approval for this line was received on 25 July 1864. As part of this scheme the existing Lincoln to Gainsborough line was also to be upgraded. On 1 December that year the line from Lincoln to Doncaster was closed and doubling took place. At this time the new station initially called Gainsborough was built and trains started calling there on 15 July 1867.

On 1 March 1871 a line was opened from north of the station to the bank of the River Trent serving Ashcroft Saw Mill and an iron works.

Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway

In 1879 the GNR and the Great Eastern Railway (GER) formed a committee to build a line linking the coal fields of south Yorkshire to London. This saw the building of a new line from Spalding North Junction to Pyewipe Junction near Lincoln which opened in stages in 1882. The station was transferred to the Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway committee.

Passenger facilities were improved in 1883 and 1884, and goods facilities expanded in 1886 and 1891 with a number of rail connected businesses operated in the station area. In 1909 the joint committee was abandoned and although the station remained in Joint ownership, it was managed by the GNR.

London and North Eastern Railway

The GNR amalgamated with several other railways to form the London and North Eastern Railway on 1 January 1923. On 9 July the station was renamed Gainsborough North although this name was short-lived as the station was renamed Gainsborough Lea Road on 1 December.

In the Second World War the joint line saw significant freight traffic and passenger services were reduced as a result.

British Railways

Following nationalisation of the railways in 1948 Gainsborough Lea Road became part of the Eastern Region of British Railways.

The goods yard remained active during the 1950s but falling traffic saw closure on 1 April 1967.

Winter 1890 services

Passenger services in the Winter 1890 services included several express services operated by the Great Eastern Railway supplemented by local trains between Lincoln and Doncaster operated by the GNR. there was also a Peterborough - Doncaster local service (GNR) and march - Doncaster local service operated by the GER.

The express services were:

There were a number of goods services: GER services generally running between Whitemoor (a large marshalling yard located north of March in Cambridgeshire) and Doncaster. GNR goods services ran from Doncaster to/from a variety of destinations including Lincoln, Louth, Peterborough and Grantham.

Modern day services

Monday to Saturdays on the Sheffield-Lincoln Line there is generally an hourly service westbound to Sheffield, with the majority of services continuing to Adwick, and eastbound to Lincoln Central with a two-hourly service on Sundays from early afternoon. There is also one early morning service to Scunthorpe and one evening service to Hull. The Northern franchise is due to transfer to a new operator Arriva Rail North from 1 April 2016, who have agreed to improve services on this route as part of the new franchise agreement. This will see weekday semi-fast services run to/from Leeds via Barnsley and additional trains operate on Sundays operated by new British Rail Class 195 trains.

On the Doncaster-Lincoln Line there are five East Midlands Trains per day Monday to Saturday direct to Doncaster northbound and Lincoln Central southbound with some trains extending to Peterborough run by Class 153 units. No Sunday service operates on this route.

There have also been calls from the local rail users group for the station to receive a direct service to London Kings Cross, which would be provided by extending the current Virgin Trains East Coast service between London & Lincoln Central (the set for which currently runs empty to/from Neville Hill depot at Leeds and passes through the station en route to Lincoln). The operator has yet to formally respond to these proposals.

Signal Boxes

When the station opened in 1877 a signal box called Gainsborough South was provided. there was also a signal box at Gainsborough North which controlled access to the goods yard and Trent branch (known as Lower yard) South signal box was renamed Lea Road in 1895 when it had a new lever frame made by Evans, O' Donnell & Co fitted. North box was replaced by a ground frame.

On 11 February 2009 Gainsborough Lea Road signal box was badly damaged by fire. The block section (this is the area between signals controlled by different signal boxes) was extended to between Stow Park (southwards) and Gainsborough Trent Junction to the north. The route was upgraded during 2012 and 2013 as part of a £280m project to relieve the East Coast Main Line of freight. This included new colour light signalling and the signal boxes at Stow Park and Gainsborough Lea Rd officially closed in January 2014 with the new signalling controlled from Lincoln Control Centre.