REALLY SideTracked – Dogdyke
Flanders and Swann Slow Train event No 16.
After a long break, the Slow Train series continues with a geocaching meet-up between 1 and 2pm on Saturday 7th October, at the Packet Inn near the site of the old station at Dogdyke.
This is the next in a series of SideTracked events based on the song Slow Train by Flanders and Swann. Written in 1963, the song laments the closure of many stations and railway lines under the Beeching cuts of that era.
"On the main line and the goods siding
The grass grows high,
At Dogdyke, Tumby Woodside and Trouble House Halt..."
About SideTracked Caches
This cache belongs to the SideTracked series. It is not designed to take you to a magical place with a breath taking view. It's a distraction for the weary traveller, but anyone else can go and find it too. More Information can be found at the SideTracked Website.
About Dogdyke Station
Dogdyke station looking south in October 1961.
Dogdyke was a station on the former Lincolnshire loop line, a railway that linked Peterborough to Gainsborough via Spalding, Boston and Lincoln. The line was authorised on 26 June 1846 as part of the London and York Railway bill. The then renamed Great Northern Railway purchased the Witham Navigation and all navigation rights the same year and began construction of the new line, partly beside the river, in 1847. The line opened in 1848 and was for a short period the main route to the north and Scotland until the line from Peterborough to Retford was opened in August 1852.
The station had two brick faced platforms and was sited immediately north of the level crossing. There was a timber waiting room with a canopy near the south end of the up platform with no buildings on the down platform. There was a signal box behind the up platform adjacent to the crossing; this controlled the crossing and access to the goods yard which comprised two sidings on the up side south of the crossing, one of them passing through a large brick built goods shed and a 1.5 ton crane. A third siding serving Sinclair's warehouse and corn mill ran behind the down platform as far as the crossing. The booking office was on the south side of the crossing. The brick building was Italianate in style consisted of a single storey building with a three storey tower and a second narrower tower alongside. This is similar to other station buildings on the loop line but at other stations the building is larger and also incorporates the stationmaster's house. This doesn't appear to be the case at Dogdyke, the windows on at least two side of the tower are bricked up. Another brick house, identical in style to some other station houses, was situated in the north east corner of the goods yard and this is assumed to have been the stationmaster's house. The station was closed to both passengers and goods on 17th June 1963. The wooden platform building was destroyed by fire in 1965.
Source: Wikipedia and disused-stations.org.uk
The event
We will meet in the Packet Inn, where hopefully there will be an area set aside for us. Food should be available - please indicate in your will-attend logs how many will be attending and likely to eat so I can give the pub some idea of numbers.
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