Skegness Station and Pier, revisiting a past family destination, August 2017 - 4282+294

With two of the younger contingent in tow and promises of 'goodies' later on, though they needed little encouragement to be out-and-about, on the left, Otis heads towards the camera with Oscar and companion, Andy, in the background, all having watched the 'train go by' and now want a look at the signal box. As will be appreciated, Skegness station is substantial and speaks of a time when holiday-makers used this mode of transport to access the coast for their one or two week annual holidays. Billy Butlin built a holiday camp here, and a few elsewhere, see-
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Butlin
for details about this character, but this was the 1st camp he opened, in 1936 a few years before the 2nd World War and it is still in operation, occupying a large tract of land to the north of the town, not far from the beach, though the main road passes through it. The state of the outlying platforms can be seen left and right and have not seen use in a number of years; the Autumn leaf fall workings, the so called 'Leaf Busters', eg 3J42, Doncaster Up Decoy to Peterborough L.I.P. on October 24th last year, with DBS class 66s top-and-tail, come to this location and they, as well as the odd charter trains, may well be the main users of the platform lines on the left. EMT 156498 is sat at the end of the platform loading up with a respectible crowd of folk waiting behind the gates; I had to ask permission to come through to take these pictures as normally they are kept bolted, which is a shame though no antagonism was shown from the very polite attendant at the gate, just concern to watch the 'rampant Otis careening along'! On the right a shot towards the east and now the space, once occupied by a building, neon lit with the words, 'Tower Esplanade', see 2nd from last 'Then & Now' pictures, is now the venue for both Lidl and Tesco supermarkets, what else. the 'Tower Esplanade' does still exist and it is the area from the station, east to the sea and then north along the main drag of the beach. imagine the semaphore on the far left can ever be used at all and is probably awaiting removal, along with all the others and the signal box when, amazingly, the York R.O.C., Railway Operating Centre, takes control of the area and Multi-Aspect colour light signals rule the roost here; this is slated to be 2020 according to Michael Rhodes book, 'Resignalling Britain'. Of note, with reference to the later, 'Then & Now' station pictures, it can be seen there is nothing left of the old concrete canopies which went along the lower end of the two central island platforms, I was hoping there may have been a section of these left for the comparison with the 1971 images but alas, no sign of any remains of the concrete structures.

Taken on: August 24, 2017

Tags:

Skegness Station

Skegness Pier

Wainfleet and Firsby Railway

East Midlands Trains

Class 156

156498

2S09

Nottingham via Grantham, Sleaford & Boston to Skegness

2S12

Skegness via Boston, Sleaford and Grantham to Nottingham

DBS

DB Shenker

Class 66

3J42

Doncaster Up Decoy to Peterborough L.I.P.

Semaphore Signals

Skegness Signalbox

Shunt Disc Signal

Tesco Supermarket

Tower Esplanade

Hudson Motors

Buffer Stop

The Lincolnshire Wind Farm

Lynn and Inner Dowsing Wind Farm

Billy Butlin Holiday Camp

York R.O.C.

Railway Operating Centre

Michael Rhodes

Resignalling Britain

Havenhouse Station

Sutton-on-Sea

Mablethorpe

Theddlethorpe

Saltfleetby All Saints

Skegness Fantasy Island « less

Sets appears in: • People • Skegness

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