This splendid scene, captured by Tom Boustead in the early 1960s, sets Grantham's South Box in a railway landscape that had scarcely altered for decades. However within ten years, by the spring of 1972, the box, its signals and telegraph poles were gone, and the complex track layout had been rationalised. The future held yet more changes in store.
After a pause to attend to other chapters in Grantham's railway story, we are returning to our illustrated history of signalling and signal boxes at Grantham with the launch of our latest new pages: Grantham South Signal Box and Grantham South Signal Box - an introduction.
The story is based on information and photographs kindly contributed over a period of time by many people. It's about an area of the railway at Grantham that was 'off limits' to all except those who either worked on the railway or had secured official permission. Therefore photographs, other than some taken from the Great North Road bridge, are difficult to find. So if you have, or if you know of, pictures taken in the area between the Up and Down side goods yards and Saltersford please let us know via our Contact Us page. One particular appeal - we haven't yet seen photographs of the Down Loop at Saltersford, installed near the water works in 1943 and taken out of use in 1968.