Expect dozens of railway fans and nostalgia-lovers to turn out in Brigg on Saturday to see a very rare sight - a live steam loco in full cry.
Preserved engine No 70013 Oliver Cromwell is due through Brigg station at 4.51pm at the head of a special train packed with enthusiasts from London.
Best vantage points, in addition to the station, will be alongside the Bigby Road level crossing and down Elwes Street (Cadney Road) to see the loco side on as it crosses the bridge over the Old River Ancholme.
Oliver Cromwell is arriving in northern Lincolnshire via the Lincoln-Market Rasen-Barnetby route (viewable from the humped-back bridge on Bigby High Road, just past the turn-off for Howsham, if you fancy a trip out).
It's then heading for Cleethorpes, moving on to New Holland and returning to Barnetby before taking to the Brigg line (open only on Saturdays to passenger trains).
As modern diesels were pressed into service, British Railways withdrew its last rusting steam locos in our area in March 1966, since when you can count on one hand the number of preserved engines to pass through Brigg.
In the past dozen-or-so years we've seen a Black Five 4-6-0, a B1 4-6-0 and V2 2-6-2 Green Arrow. So it really will be a rare sight coming our way on Saturday.
Britannia class locos like Oliver Cromwell were infrequent visitors to the Brigg line even when a handful were based at Immingham depot in the early 1960s, although they did handle fish trains and there was one of those, bound for Sheffield and Manchester, which chugged through Brigg about 6.30pm on weekdays.
I thought Brigg Blog had better find out Oliver Cromwell's arrival time in town, as I was approached in Wrawby Street yesterday morning by a well-known Brigg trainspotter of the 1950s, keen to know the details. He won't be the last!
Please remember, though, the time quoted here is only approximate; special excursions, especially steam-hauled ones, are subject to delays, and regular trains are given priority on the tracks.
Green Arrow - our most recent chuffin' arrival in March 2007 - was running a couple of hours late and it was nearly dark when it finally steamed through Brigg station.
Some lineside enthusiasts went home and missed it; those who stuck it out were rewarded with a whiff of nostalgia.
The good news is that the growth of mobile phones and hand-held email access mean it is now easy for railway fans to find out about hold-ups, so the enthusiasts' grapevine will provide useful information on Saturday for those of us waiting by the lineside.
Digital camera in hand, I might well give Cadney Road a try this time; if I can persuade son to join me, he could be willing to record some video footage.
Those trainspotters of the steam ago who turn out in Brigg on Saturday will doubtless be talking over the happy days of their youth, spent taking down the numbers of the locos which came to town when our station was quite grand and had its own goods depot and coal sidings, plus station staff headed by Mr Holden.
Not much left now but the platforms and the cast iron footbridge. And we have to wonder how long it is before Network Rail sets its sights on that (health and safety, maintenance costs, etc). Before it's too late, someone really ought to declare it a listed building (structure), which should have been the case with the rare brick-built coal drops They were demolished with indecent haste. No-one has touched that site since the day the bulldozers left, having done their worst.
Victorian cast iron railway footbridges are few and far between now - look at the modern monstrosity erected instead at Barnetby - so how about our elected representatives taking up the cause?
Pictured: Top - Oliver Cromwell at Barnetby station on a previous visit to North Lincolnshire which did not involve a trip down the Brigg line; Below - B1 4-6-0 No 61264 crossing Cadney Road bridge, Brigg, at the head of a steam-hauled special which approached from the Gainsborough direction.
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