The Great Northern Railway (GNR) was a British railway company incorporated in 1846 with the object of building a line from London to York. It quickly saw that seizing control of territory was key to development, and it acquired, or took leases of, many local railways, whether actually built or not. In so doing, it overextended itself financially.
The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a 393-mile long (632 km) electrified railway between its northern terminus at Edinburgh Waverley and southern terminus at London King's Cross station. The key towns and cities of Peterborough, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle are on the line. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Great Britain running broadly parallel to the A1 road. The main line acts as a 'spine' for several diverging branches, serving destinations such as Cambridge, Leeds, Hull, Sunderland and Lincoln, all with direct services to London. In addition, a few ECML services extend beyond Edinburgh to serve other Scottish destinations, such as Stirling, Inverness, Aberdeen or Glasgow Central, although the principal London-Glasgow route is the West Coast Main Line (WCML).
Newark Northgate railway station is on the East Coast Main Line serving the market town of Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, England. It is 120 miles 8 chains (193.3 km) down the line from London King's Cross and is situated on the main line between Grantham to the south and Retford to the north. The station is Grade II listed.
Doncaster railway station is on the East Coast Main Line serving the city of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. It is 155 miles 77 chains (251 km) down the line from London King's Cross and is situated between Retford and York on the main line. It is managed by London North Eastern Railway. It is the second busiest station in South Yorkshire, and the fourth busiest station in Yorkshire & the Humber.
Peterborough railway station serves the cathedral city of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. It is sited 76 miles 29 chains (122.9 km) north of London King's Cross. The station is a major interchange serving both the north–south East Coast Main Line, as well as long-distance and local east–west services. The station is managed by London North Eastern Railway. Ticket gates came into use at the station in 2012.
Retford railway station is on the East Coast Main Line serving the town of Retford, Nottinghamshire, England. It is 138 miles 49 chains (223.1 km) down the line from London King's Cross and is situated between Newark North Gate and Doncaster on the main line. It has four platforms, two of which serve the main line and the other two, located at a lower level and at right angles to the first pair, serve the Sheffield to Lincoln Line.
The Sheffield–Lincoln line is a railway line in England. It runs from Sheffield to Lincoln via Worksop, Retford and Gainsborough Lea Road. The route comprises the main line of the former Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR), to Gainsborough Trent Junction, where it then follows the former Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway (GNGEJR) to Lincoln Central. The former MS&LR main line continues from Trent Junction to Wrawby Junction, Barnetby, much of it now single line, where it then runs to Cleethorpes. In 2023, the Department for Transport announced that a new station will be opened on the line. Waverley station will be located between Darnall and Woodhouse.
Saxilby railway station serves Saxilby in Lincolnshire, England. The station is on the Sheffield-Lincoln line and the Doncaster-Lincoln Line. It was built by The Great Northern Railway and opened in 1849.
Lincoln railway station serves the city of Lincoln in Lincolnshire, England. The station is owned by Network Rail and managed by East Midlands Railway. East Midlands Railway provides the majority of services from the station, with other services being provided by Northern and London North Eastern Railway. It is the busiest station in Lincolnshire, and the fifth busiest station in the East Midlands.
Barnetby railway station serves the village of Barnetby-le-Wold in North Lincolnshire, England. It is operated by TransPennine Express, with East Midlands Railway and Northern Trains also serving the station.
Saxilby is a village and civil parish in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England, about 6 miles (9.7 km) north-west from Lincoln, on the A57 road at the junction of the B1241. It is part of the civil parish of Saxilby and Ingleby, which includes the village of Ingleby. The population of the civil parish in 2001 was 3,679, increasing to 3,992 at the 2011 census.
Gainsborough Central railway station is one of two railway stations in the town of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England. The station is on the Brigg branch of the Sheffield–Lincoln line. Services are currently operated by Northern Trains.
Sleaford railway station serves the town of Sleaford in Lincolnshire, England. It lies on the Peterborough–Lincoln line. The station is 21 miles (34 km) south of Lincoln Central.
Spalding railway station serves the town of Spalding, Lincolnshire, England. It lies on the Peterborough–Lincoln line.
Metheringham railway station serves the village of Metheringham in Lincolnshire, England. It lies on the Peterborough–Lincoln line. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by East Midlands Railway, which provides all its rail services.
The Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway, colloquially referred to as "the Joint Line" was a railway line connecting Doncaster and Lincoln with March and Huntingdon in the eastern counties of England. It was owned jointly by the Great Northern Railway (GNR) and the Great Eastern Railway (GER). It was formed by transferring certain route sections from the parent companies, and by the construction of a new route between Spalding and Lincoln, and a number of short spurs and connections. It was controlled by a Joint Committee, and the owning companies operated their own trains with their own rolling stock. The Joint Line amounted to nearly 123 miles (198 km) of route.
The Syston and Peterborough Railway was an early railway in England opened between 1846 and 1848 to form a connection from the Midland Counties Railway near Leicester to Peterborough, giving access to East Anglia over the Eastern Counties Railway. The project was part of the ambition of George Hudson to establish and maintain a monopoly of railway service over a large area of England. The surveying of the line achieved notoriety when Robert Sherard, 6th Earl of Harborough, who was hostile to railways, arranged a battle to obstruct surveys of the proposed line, and later of its construction.
The Lincolnshire loop line was a railway built by the Great Northern Railway, that linked Peterborough to Gainsborough via Spalding, Boston and Lincoln. It ran through the counties of Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire
The Lincolnshire lines of the Great Northern Railway are the railways, past and present, in the English county built or operated by the Great Northern Railway.
Checker House railway station was a station between Retford and Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England which served the village of Ranby from 1852 to 1931. The platforms were immediately to the east of the A1 road, and there was a goods station to the west of the road, which remained open until 1963. The line remains open for services on the Sheffield–Lincoln line but nothing remains of the passenger station or platforms, although part of a loading gauge was still visible in 2021.
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