Barton Line: Cleethorpes to Barnetby and Barton-on-Humber Description The Barton Line is a rural diesel line situated in the county of Lincolnshire in Northern England. The line runs between the coastal towns of Barton-on-Humber and Cleethorpes, linking various smaller villages in between. The line is situated next to Immingham Docks, one of the Uk's largest ports for raw materials. As a result the line sees many freight movements with imports and exports of coal, oil and steel. This gives plenty of opportunity for heavy freight action and shunting, as well as local passenger services. The line to Barnetby should also feature, being a significant junction station splitting three ways for onward connections to the rest of the UK rail network. This would also provide an ideal place for services to start and end. Total route length would be approximately 35 to 40 miles with 15 stations and multiple freight yards. It would primarily offer another UK freight-focused route in TSW, with the added bonus of potentially two new train types and a new area to explore not covered before in a train simulator. Services -Cleethorpes to Barton-on-Humber, 55 minutes. 1 train every 2 hours. -Cleethorpes to Manchester Piccadilly, 25 minutes. 1 train per hour. -Grimsby Town to Leicester, 30 minutes. 1 train every 2 hours. This would also include various frequent freight workings between Barnetby and the docks. (Based on current timetable, more services may have ran historically) Rolling Stock This route has a wide variety of stock options, both current and historic. Local services are primarily in the hands of 1-car Class 153 Sprinter DMUs, with the Class 156 making a more recent appearance. Until recently Northern Trains were the sole operator on the Barton line local services, being somewhat unusual by not connecting to the rest of the Northern network. Nowadays services are operated by East Midlands Railway. Express services are operated by Trans Pennine Express using the Class 185, and previously the Class 170. Going back several decades the line was home to many DMU types including the Class 101 and 114 1st gen DMUs, Class 142 and 144 Pacer DMUs, and Class 150 and 153 Sprinter DMUs. Freight wise the route is largely associated with the Class 60, which would be a new addition to Train Sim World. 100 of these diesels were ordered by British Rail in the late 80's to operate the heaviest freight trains which previously would need to have been double headed by locos such as the Class 37. Freight loads include Coal, Oil and Steel, with Grain and Chemicals previously being carried to freight terminals near Barton. Locale The route would be best set in the early 90's, where the largest variety in services and liveries would be found. This could include a Regional Railways Class 153 operating local services, and a Railfreight sectors livery Class 60 operating heavy freight. Gameplay would be somewhat similar to Tees Valley, with an industrial feel flanked by stretches of rural countryside. The line would also feel somewhat derelict and in disrepair with overgrown sidings, desolate stations, and a mish-mash of colour light and older semaphore signals. Layers If set in the early 90's, stock from Tees Valley would layer in, including both the Class 37 and Class 101, as well as the Class 20 and Class 31 loco DLCs. The Class 47 from Northern Trans-Pennine could make an appearance on Manchester bound services, with the Class 08 assigned shunting duties around the docks. An included Class 153 could also layer onto West Cornwall local as a paired 2-car unit, substituting for the Class 150. End of the line at Barton-on-Humber, with a Class 153 Ulceby station, where local passenger services and freight from the docks converge, with a Class 60 The old Cleethorpes station (prior to reconstruction in the early 2000's) with a Class 114 and 144 Immingham Docks with surrounding scenery and railway lines Route Map Please feel free to share your thoughts on this idea, would you prefer to see this route set in the 90's as opposed to another place or time?
90s sounds very good, lots of variety with stock. If you included the line to Scunthorpe you could run coal, steel and iron ore trains into the steel works and passenger trains to Scunthorpe, just a suggestion as the freight from Immingham really has no end point.
As someone who used to live close to this area and visited many of them back in the late 80s and early 90s I'd love to see it. As above, it would be better going to Scunthorpe (aka sunny scunny) for steel and passenger workings. I ran the Scunny - Grimsby section many times as a nipper and went to Barnetby quite often too to pick up family members coming home from college and uni. On quiet days in the village I lived in I could hear the old diesels running the line between Scunthorpe and Barnetby (through Elsham LC) as the line ran about a mile away from my village.
My original thinking was that Barnetby would be the stopping point for freight as if changing drivers, similar to Eaglescliffe on Tees Valley. Now that you mention Scunthorpe, that would be more appropriate, and it would only add perhaps another 5 to 7 miles to the total route length. Good idea.
Can you remember how frequent the freight was back then? I know this area is particularly busy for freight traffic.
Unfortunately I can't remember as I lived in that area between the ages of 5 and 9 so was quite young and didn't pay much attention to the trains back then. I only remember hearing them on good days and the horns too. It probably was busy back then as there was the steelworks at Scunthorpe and the Lindsey oil refinery near Immingham.
Thanks anyway. It's somewhat difficult to judge the busyness of freight in the timetable when such information is hard to find.
Same here. UK freight is somewhat underrepresented, especially with newer diesels like the Class 56, 58 and 60. Would love a Class 153 also!
I was born and raised in the area, used to do many a trip to Barnetby (including a few overnighters!) there was a lot of freight around. A lot was repeated as trains ran the Iron ores and coal trains on very regular short trips from Scunny to Immingham. Lots of fuel trains in and out of Immingham too
Those short heavy freight trips to Scunthorpe sound like good fun, it would be great to be able to do 'complete' freight runs on a UK route in TSW. Were the coal workings merry-go-round?
Yeah, Immingham to Scunthorpe coal handling plant was usually class 56s in the late 90s with 36 HAA type wagons, later to class 66s with HTAs The iron ores were pairs of 37s in the late 80s with a single class 60s taking over in the early 90s all with JUA type tipplers It would be good fun to work back and forth loading and unloading all day (and night with the iron ores)
Thanks. HAA, JUA and TEA wagons were the predominant type seen I guess. This route seems to be offering up more potential than I originally thought!
Could always throw in a Class 08 for good measure, although I believe most trains here don't require shunters (the loco itself runs around a fixed train consist length, little need to couple and uncouple wagons).
Regarding shunters, in the 80s there was 08s at the following locations Frodingham depot (this often did trips up to Normandy / Dragonby etc) West yard (opposite Scunthorpe station) this sorted wagons in and out via the hump Trent and Anchor yards sorting steel wagons on BR metals Grimsby Town station pilot Immingham depot various yards around Immingham into the 90s there was one at Scunthorpe and a few at Immingham.
I travelled this route today, and it would make a great addition to tsw. a really interesting and intricate branch line, with plenty of opportunity for freight, with really nice scenery along the way too. would love to see this become a reality!
