March Station in photos (large images 1024 x 576)

[fen_tiger]

Hello everyone

I've been out and about yesterday visiting the town of March, Cambs, with intention of getting a number of atmospheric winter / low sunlight photos of
the railway station. It wasn't easy though, in the cold weather, as the camera batteries had to be constantly rotated with spare warmed-up batteries
between each photo being taken.

1) Whitemoor Junction

Seen from Norwood Road over-bridge is the overgrown, closed Wisbech branch heads away to the north, connected to Whitemoor Junction via a
completely new point (turnout) installed when the yard was re-opened as a engineering stabling / and ballast & track panel replenishment yard, whilst
the entrance roads to the Network Rail yard itself curves to the left. Behind the security fence is a public footpath running along the Western
boundary of the yards. On the footpath I glimpsed a couple of resident (former BR) Class 08 shunters, both in DRS livery. One of the locos was seen
on shunting duties with one of the ballast trains near to the yard's modern control tower.

Whitemoor Yard only has two entrance / exit roads, seen here both curving off in opposite directions under the road bridge towards the main line at the
west of the station. The track curving to the right joins the main line at March East Junction allowing works trains to and from East Anglia, with the
other trailing curve (heading to the left) connecting to the main line at March West Junction, thus allowing works trains to and from Peterborough and
the rest of the country. The track on the extreme left is just a long trailing head-shunt siding running just a few hundred yards parallel with the curve
onto March West Junction.




2) Station Road Level Crossing

An imposing Great Eastern Signal box overlooking a very busy LC. Behind the box, the former 'East' Sidings yard overgrown with dense grass and small
trees. Although the Wisbech Branch is closed following removal from the operational network in 2001 the box still retains a lever for the disused route.
Network Rail plan to close this box in the next few years and have the Ely - Peterborough main line (running through March) controlled from Cambridge.

 

[fen_tiger]

3) Station Road Level Crossing

Looking East towards the former 'Up' and 'Down' East Sidings. The 'Up' sidings no longer used and overgrown with small trees and dense grasses, whilst
the 'Down' sidings are still used today. A double holding loop is retained on the 'Down' yard for holding engineering trains awaiting access to Whitemoor
Yard, and the old G.E.R goods shed (seen behind the snow plough) is now used as a traction maintenance shed for the Class 66's. Seen in the back
head-shunt is one of the two resident snow-ploughs stabled at the Network Rail TMD shed.

* Note the double semaphore home signal protecting the exit of the double holding loops joining the main running line.



4) Access point information board

 

[fen_tiger]

5) March Station

March Station on a cold winter afternoon saw me standing on Platform 1 taking numerous photos in-between trains coming and going and me having to
constantly rotate cold batteries with warmed-up ones for my camera. Behind the picket fence are the former now track-less through platforms for
Spalding, and the filled-in bay platforms that once saw local services to onto Wisbech and King's lynn until 1968.



6) March Station footbridge

Close-up view of the cast iron overbridge spanning the current operational Peterborough - Ely main line and the former connection into the redundant
Spalding platforms. The current Platforms 1 and 2 were, until 1982, Platforms 5 and 6 with the original platform 1 and 2 on the Spalding connection and
Platforms 3 and 4 being the former Wisbech bay platforms. When the Wisbech line closed in 1968 and the Spalding platforms closed in 1982, following
the closure of the March - Spalding main line, this station saw a full re-organisation of the platform numbering system.

 

[fen_tiger]

7) Current and past passenger services

March railway station serves the town of March in Cambridgeshire, England. The station is 14 miles (23 km) east of Peterborough on the Ely to
Peterborough line.

The station was once a major railway junction with a confluence of lines radiating from the town. The station has been reduced in importance in
recent years with several railway lines being dismantled or mothballed. The important cross-country regional route between Ely and Peterborough
still runs through the station and an increasing number of freight trains pass through the town.

The station originally had seven platforms. However, two of these are now filled-in bay platforms, and the track has been removed from a further
west-facing bay on the southern side of the station. There are now just two operational platforms, although track has recently been re-laid on two
disused platforms on the northern side of the station and it is anticipated that these may be used should proposals to reopen the line to Wisbech
come to fruition. The Whitemoor Marshalling Yard has now been returned to use in 2004 having been disused since the early 1990s.

March was once a junction for lines to Spalding, Lincolnshire (opened in 1867 by the Great Northern Railway and subsequently vested jointly with the
Great Eastern Railway in 1879), the St. Ives line and the 1847 - 1968 Wisbech and Watlington Junction branch. The Spalding line was closed by British
Rail in November 1982 and was completely lifted a few years later. The St Ives branch (opened in 1848) was closed completely in March 1967 as a
result of the Beeching axe, whilst the Wisbech line closed to all traffic in 2000 having lost its regular passenger services (through to King's Lynn) in
September 1968.

On weekdays, Abello Greater Anglia operate a two hourly service eastbound to Ipswich and westbound to Peterborough. Crosscountry operate an hourly
service eastbound to Cambridge and Stanstead Airport, westbound services serve Peterborough, Leicester and Birmingham New Street. The hourly East
Midland Trains service between Norwich and Liverpool Lime Street via Peterborough, Nottingham and Manchester Piccadilly normally runs through without
stopping, though a few morning & evening peak trains do call.