RAILWAY Roundabout

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‘GREENFIELD’ HERITAGE LINE CELEBRATES 60 YEARS

The very first heritage railway in the world to be built by enthusiasts opened on 27 August 1960, linking the beach and a holiday camp at Humberston, south of the Lincolnshire seaside resort of Cleethorpes, with the terminus of local bus services. That was – and still is – the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway, a short line of less than a mile, built with old rails and rolling stock from the battlefields in France of WW1 and the Nocton Estates Railway, which carried potatoes and sugar beet across the Lincolnshire fens.

The foresight of those pioneers led to many similar railways being built around the world (as distinct from reopening lines already closed) and which, in many cases, have become the bedrock of the local tourist economy. The second such line, the Ocean Beach Railway at Dunedin on New Zealand’s South Island, was