History Society renews appeal for missing ‘model’

Passengers wait on the platform as a steam engine arrives at Horncastle Station - but where is the model? The last passenger train to Horncastle ran in September 1964: a special tour of mid Lincolnshire lines organised by the Railway Correspondence and Travel Society. Could Government plans to “level up” the economy as part of the recovery from covid, by investing in the the reopening of railway lines mean, that this might, after all, not have been the last passenger train to Horncastle and Woodhall Spa

They are asking railway enthusiasts to help find the model which has not been seen since the closure of the town’s museum in 2002.

At first, it was thought the model had been transferred to the Museum of Lincolnshire Life, but they do not have it.

Now, the magazine Heritage Railway (published in Horncastle) and the website RailAdvent have published appeals for information on its whereabouts after local appeals failed to locate it – though they did bring to light some relics of the original line, which closed to goods trains nearly 50 years ago.

The appeal has also been shared by the Midlands Region of Historic England on their Twitter feed and by the Great Northern Railway Society.

Society chairman, Dr Ian Marshman, said: “The big question is: where is it? We would like to return it to Horncastle in 2021 to display in the town and perhaps offer to the Woodhall Spa Cottage Museum, with whom we’re working on anniversary commemorations”.

One member of the society said he recalled it being stored at a private house in the town and that before the museum’s closure ‘it looked pretty dilapidated’.

Suggestions that the model may have gone to a railway museum at Burgh-le-Marsh have been discounted, as it has been learned that closed before the Horncastle Museum did.

Attempts are now being made to contact some of the other small railway museums in Lincolnshire (Heckington, Ludborough, Immingham) to see if they can help, but contact is not easy because of Covid-19 and lockdown.

Society members believe that if the model still exists, it could still be in Horncastle, tucked away in someone’s loft, basement or garage – so it’s hoped these national appeals will reach more people than might normally be expected.

The full size station was opened to passengers on August 11 1855.

The last passenger train left the station on September 13, 1953 ,while freight services ceased on April 6, 1971.

It’s that latter 50th anniversary that the society hopes to celebrate this year, lockdown permitting.

The station was the terminus of a line just under eight miles in length from Kirkstead Junction (later renamed Woodhall Junction) on the Boston to Lincoln ‘Lincolnshire Loop’ line, running on single track to Woodhall Spa and then to a terminus in Horncastle.

In its heyday, even royalty travelled on its tracks to ‘take the waters’ at Woodhall Spa and there was a through carriage each day to London; local services ran to Woodhall Junction and to Boston, with connections from both to the rest of the British Isles.

An initial appeal to find the station led to the discovery of a photograph of a model of the station, which was once exhibited in the erstwhile Horncastle Museum.

The model had been built by a solicitor in Horncastle, Col. Reggie Tweed, whose family had been involved in the formation of the original Horncastle Railway Company.

It included a model locomotive and carriages. It was, not surprisingly, very popular with visitors in the museum, located in the Trinity Centre.

•If you have any information, contact Dr Marshman on 07709 684104 or email [email protected]