March Railway Photos (1280 x 960)

[fen_tiger]

My own photographs taken during a hot, sunny July Saturday afternoon around part of the busy Ely - Peterborough main line running through the town of March, Cambridgeshire.

(1) March Station - Looking west towards Peterborough and the East Curve Junction trailing from the main line towards Whitemoor Junction and Network Rail's Whitemoor Yard. The Station starter - for Cross-Country franchise services calling at Peterborough and Birmingham New Street from Ely, Norwich and Thetford - has the old BR shed code for March TMD - 'ME' (formerly shed code 31B). The wrong-line station starter is just for Network Rail works trains accessing their busy yard via March East Curve Junction.



(2) March Station - looking east towards the former 'Up' and 'Down' yard sidings on the other side of Station Road level crossing and the main line on to Norwich via Ely. This is the other three-aspect station starter controlling Ely, Norwich and Thetford bound Cross-Country franchise services from Peterborough and Birmingham New Street. The old BR shed code 'ME' - for the former March Diesel Traction Shed at Whitemoor Yards - is clearly visible in this photograph. Also shown is part of the original Great Eastern Railway canopy spandrel.



(3) March Station - post mounted shunt signal used for GBRf Class 66's shunting between the small GBRf re-fuelling / maintenance shed (formerly the goods shed) and the 'Down' refuge loop and sidings. The 'wrong-line' working slip is the crossover between Whitemoor Yard (East Curve Junction), March GBRf re-fuelling facilities and the 'Down' refuge loop holding any ballast / works trains arriving at March into Whitemoor Yard from the rest of the East Anglian rail network.



(4) March Station - interior view of the Great Eastern Station looking west towards Peterborough. Platform 1 was originally platform 6 until the March to Spalding main line was closed in September 1982. At the western end of platform 2 and behind the modern fencing is the former and now filled-in bay platforms once used by Wisbech and King's Lynn services until that route was closed on 9th September 1968. The platform canopies that still retain their original Great Eastern spandrels used to extend the full length of these platforms until they were cut back halfway with a modern replacement in the early 1980s.

 

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(5) March Station - interior view of the station looking east towards Ely, Norwich and the former, now overgrown relief sidings. The impressive iron footbridge connecting all of the through platforms is only now used for access between platform 1 (formerly 6) and platform 2 (formerly 5) with the section from the present platform 2 to the former Spalding platforms now locked and out-of-bounds for passengers. The footbridge was repaired and renovated with a new paint scheme by 'The Friends of March Railway Station' - a voluntary organisation preserving the disused platforms and disused buffet rooms in the station.



(6) March Station - looking west from the Great Eastern footbridge itself and a more general view of the current platforms still in use. Only half of this magnificent footbridge is freely accessible nowdays to passengers and the public as the closed portion is slightly unsafe structually.



(7) March Station - looking east towards the 'Up' and 'Down' refuge loops and the current GBRf traction shed (formerly the old goods shed). The crossover slip connecting Whitemoor Yard (via March East Curve Junction) and the traction shed / 'Down' refuge loop can be seen better from this imposing viewpoint.



(8) March Station - the former Spalding platforms, now in the care of the voluntary organisation 'The Friends of March Railway Station'. A wheelchair ramp was installed a few years ago across the former trackbed that until 1982 saw trains connecting Spalding with Great Yarmouth via March, Ely and Norwich.

 

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(9) March Station - the former bay platforms once used by local Wisbech and King's Lynn services, since filled after the loss of the through route to King's Lynn and subsequent track rationalisation around March in the 1970s and 1980s.



(10) March Station - the wrought iron footbridge crossing the main line. We also see the disabled access ramp crossing the former Spalding trackbed and helpful directions telling us which platform is used for Peterborough and Norwich bound Cross-Country franchise services.



(11) March Station - a final look at the Great Eastern Station as seen from the B1101 Station Road level crossing. Station road is a busy thoroughfare so I had to be extra careful whilst composing and taking this photograph against the almost constant road and rail traffic using this level crossing. Closer inspection of the crossover slip shows an intricate point mechanism and point motor rarely noticed properly by railway fans and railway modellers alike.



(12) March East Signal Box - an imposing former Great Eastern building still used today controlling the level crossing, access to Whitemoor Yard, the Network Rail / GBRf traction depot and the refuge loops on March East Yards. The box was recently renovated with a new paint scheme and new windows.

 

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(13) March East Yards - the approaches to the former 'Up' and 'Down' sidings adjacent to Station Road level crossing and which are either side of the main line to Ely. Only part of the 'Down' yard - to the right of picture - is still used daily with the 'Down' refuge loop and and Network Rail / GBRf re-fuelling and track maintenance buildings. March East Yards now have an allocation of two Network Rail snow ploughs - with only one of them clearly seen from the road. New trailing and crossover points it seems have been installed by Network Rail earlier this year - this busy level crossing takes a heavy battering from both road and rail traffic almost 24/7 and thus is closed on a regular basis for constant concrete road slab repairs and rail infrastructure renewal.



(14) March East Yard - these are the former, now heavily overgrown 'Up' relief sidings. Under the dense vegetation and young trees still lay the tracks that in the 1960s were used as relief stabling points for coal wagon traffic running between East Anglia, the West Midlands and the North of England. All that remains today on these now silent sidings is part of a rusty track tamperer / ballast train that has been in place for many years now.



(15) March Goods Shed - now used by GBRf as their GBRf Class 66 re-fuelling, maintenance and stabling point. In the adjacent area is Network Rail's P-way offices and works yard full of track infrastructure spares and scattered sleeper stacks. Not photographed was an old, isolated bufferstop surrounded by discarded railway junk at the back of the complex - the siding itself to this isolated bufferstop long since dismantled many years ago.



(16) March South Junction Box - now only controlling the quiet level crossing and the entrance to the diesel re-fuelling point and refuge loop in the 'Down' sidings. Nearby this box and on the other side of the road crossing is the remains of the junction for the Chatteris and St. Ives branch line - which was itself closed and dismantled in the 1960s.

 

[fen_tiger]

(17) March South Junction Box - and a view towards the refuge sidings and the station. The main line coming in from Ely is seen in the foreground of the photograph whilst behind are seen the two 'Down' loops leading towards the train stabling point and the GBRf re-fuelling shed.



(18) March South Junction Box - and now looking towards the direction of Ely. On this side of the level crossing stands nearby the former junction for the Chatteris and St. Ives branch line - with barely a trace of the old trackbed remaining after the branch was closed and dismantled in the 1960s. To the right of my photograph can be seen the connection of the 'Down' refuge loops to the main line into March via a trap point. I wasn't able to properly make out whether the trap point is operated by March South Box or by a simple ground frame. The old and rusty 'Up' loop home signal is now a relic of a once important railway town.



(19) March South Junction Box - a more general overview of the level crossing and the southern approaches to March Station. I had to stand on a private gravel dirt road in order to properly compose and take this photograph, carefully including a typical railway scene with a glorious cirrus cloud-filled sky on a baking hot and sunny July saturday afternoon. The old and rusty 'Up' home loop signal is no longer used, having being disconnected from its home signal box - but the signal's counterweight lever (seen behind the wire fencing) has been retained for possible future shunting movements onto the former 'Up' sidings.



(20) March South Junction Box - and my final photograph capturing remnants of a once-prosperous railway town that saw its heyday in the 1940s to 1960s before major railway cutbacks and track rationalisation took effect across not only the town of March, Cambridgeshire but the whole of East Anglia itself - now mostly isolated and once criss-crossed by numerous branch lines served by steam trains and later DMU's in the 1960s.

If you are knowledgable about Britain's railways then you should be able to know what the white-painted lettering on the metal fence post (to the extreme right of picture) actually refers to. I know the answer myself, but I will leave it to you to work out what it is still used for in this modern railway age.