Saturday, February 08, 2014

MEET THE MANAGER IN CHARGE OF BRIGG STATION


How heartening to learn that Brigg railway station has a manager looking after its interests on the network - even if we do only have trains on Saturdays. 
There's a  sign announcing the fact on platform one, and if you wish to contact Cliff at Northern Rail there are details of how to do so. 
Doubtless he has many other stations within his control, which is a far cry from how it once was when station masters in towns generally had only one to worry about. In rural areas, on lesser lines, this could be extended to several.
We think Brigg's last station master was Mr Holden, who had a house next to the booking office. He was there well into the 1960s. Brigg station had lost its roof by then but still had a good range of buildings - now just a memory. 
Cliff is clearly a man of considerable experience, just like Mr Holden was during his tenure.
Station masters were important people and had to be capable of handling many roles - even manning the signal box, if the need arose. Brigg still had a goods depot in the 1960s and distributed parcels. 
The picture below, which we took of platform two, does not feature celebratory bunting but seems to indicate that the shelter has been cordoned off for some reason. Unfortunately we were in a bit of a rush and didn't have time to use the surviving Victorian cast iron footbridge to nip over the other side of the station and take a look. 
However, we are sure someone will let us know, in due course, why the tape is in place.


www.scunthorpetelegraph.co.uk/Brigg 

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