BRIGG BLOG REVIEWS IMPRESSIVE NEW RAILWAY BOOK OF LOCAL INTEREST

Elsham features in an impressive new railway book, with Brigg Blog kindly given permission to use the above picture with our review.
The image appears in the initial chapter, which looks at the line between Elsham and Appleby. Elsham lost its final station staff during the 1960s.
There are two other pictures of Elsham in the book, and a map showing the village station's location. You can see the lime sidings and tower that once stood nearby.
Our earliest railway memory, as a child in the early 1960s, is being lifted into the cab of a 'Pom-Pom' class locomotive that came to shunt wagons at Elsham.
Elsham station closed to passengers 26 years ago by which time you had to tender your face to a conductor on the train.
When we started work at Scunthorpe in the 1970s we used to do just that some mornings, along with other people from Brigg.
Elsewhere in the book there is plenty to interest people living in the Brigg area who have worked at Scunthorpe's Redbourn, Normanby Park or Appleby-Frodingham steelworks at any time, with many pictures of industrial trains during the steam and diesel eras.
Recently published, the Scunthorpe to Doncaster book (hardback format) retails for £18.95, post free from publishers Middleton Press, Easebourne Lane, Midhurst, West Sussex, GU29 9AZ. Call 01730 813169. Email info@middletonpress.co.uk or visit www.middletonpress.co.uk
This book follows others in the same series covering northern Lincolnshire lines - Gainsborough to Sheffield (including Brigg and Torksey) and Branch Lines North of Grimsby (including Immingham). The latter includes New Holland, Barton, Goxhill and Ulceby, with references to the Humber Ferry.
Middleton Press has produced dozens of other books about railways across the UK, with more to follow.
We suggest the Scunthorpe to Doncaster book will make a good Christmas present for a relative or friend who takes an interest in local history or transport.
Authors Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith have done a very fine job sourcing many interesting pictures from the past and adding informative text, maps and timetables.
Brigg Blog is not old enough to have boarded a passenger train along the quaint Axholme Joint Line, also featured in the book.
It ran from Goole to Haxey via Crowle, Epworth and Belton, passing through very productive farmland which was its main source of revenue.
Between the 1930s and the 1960s did any Isle of Axholme beet, loaded into wagons, come to Brigg Sugar Factory which had rail connections with the Brigg line operated by British Railways?
Hopefully someone in the Brigg area will be able to identify the uniformed railwayman seen at Elsham. Picture credit: P. Laming Collection & Middleton Press.