Station Name: WARBOYSold_large9.jpg)
An aerial view of Warboys station in June 1953 looking in the Somersham direction. At the top of the picture is Puddock Hill while towards top left is the stationmaster's house and to its left can be seen part of the driveway to the Station Hotel. It is clear from this view how the original road was curtailed and diverted over the bridge when the railway was constructed. Just above centre left is the weighbridge and associated weigh office contained the scales. The road passing the weighbridge is the entrance to the goods yard. Almost opposite the weighbridge is the cattle pen; note the siding leading to it from the goods shed which is overgrown and all but invisible. The goods shed has the typical arrangement for a rural location of one track passing through it with another avoiding it. The up platform would be difficult to discern were it not for its ramp but the down platform with station building is more obvious. One feature conspicuous by its absence is the signal box. This had stood at the Ramsey end of the down platform and is believed to have been abolished in the 1930s. The pointwork with diamond crossing between platforms and locomotive, which appears to be a J17, was removed following closure of the line onwards to Ramsey. Thereafter access to the up platform road was via the reverse curve on the left. Re-sleepering work is ongoing and this may explain the presence of at least some of the open wagons. Right of centre the rather overgrown brickworks sidings can be seen. By this date incoming traffic would have been occasional fuel deliveries but outgoing products would by this time have largely, if not totally, switched to road transport. Nevertheless it is interesting to speculate on whether the stacks of what appear to be hollow clay bricks are awaiting loading into railway wagons. The sidings remained officially in use until the line closed permanently in 1964. The lorry, probably belonging to London Brick, on the right is too far away to be identified but it does have a look of Atkinson about it. Steam locomotives remained a regular sight at Warboys until the late summer of 1962 and then intermittently until March shed closed to steam in 1963. Diesel traction was almost always a Brush Type 2 with other types making rare appearances.
Reproduced with the kind permission of Simmons Aerofilms Ltd  Home Page
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