Opinion: The travails of getting to the end of a branch line

One of the pleasures of my job (or rather my self-employment) is travelling around the country giving talks to railway and historical societies.

The latest one took me to Barton-on-Humber. And despite the big clue in its name, I had to look for it to discover that it was south of the river in the shadow of the Humber Bridge. Interestingly, too, it was one of the few places that could not be reached with just one change of train from London. That’s because the branch line that ends at Barton was built in the 1840s from the coast inwards - from a junction with the lines to Grimsby and Immingham.

This is lovingly told in a delightful book - The Railway comes to Barton-on-Humber 1844-1914 - by Anthony Berridge, who has also uncovered details about the amazing network of 32 mostly narrow-gauge lines that led to every substantial factory in the area.