⑦Immingham Reception Sidings: (104m 30ch) This box opened on 6 Oct 1912, the same year as Immingham West Junction box, with the completion of the Port of Immingham. It is also a GCR Type 5 design but looks quite different with its distinctive blue paintwork. Another striking visual difference is the brick blast wall, visually superior to the concrete appearance of Immingham West Jn (although the latter may actually be of similar construction, with more recent rendering over the brick).

For many, this was one of the most eagerly anticipated visits today because of its extremely rare British Pneumatic Railway Signal Company (BPRSCo) slide frame, dating from 1912. At the time of the visit, many participants assumed that the signals were operated pneumatically (or had been in the past). However, further research since has clarified that operation had been all electric throughout the frame's operational life. It now only controls the area in the immediate vicinity, including the Grimsby Lines (towards Immingham East and the 'Light Railway') plus the Reception Sidings itself. The single track behind this box once to the former Immingham Motive Power Depot, 'Empty Sidings Line' on TRACKmaps 2 p31B 2020, is 'C&W Loop Line' on the box diagram. It was very shiny and in regular use.

Above the frame is a small Individual Function Switch panel dating from 1970 which controls Humber Road Jn, where the main line from Ulceby to the Dock splits three ways split into the Grimsby Lines, the Killingholme Lines (to Immingham West), and the now OOU NCB Terminal between the two.

Finally, an eNtrance eXit (NX) panel controls access to Lindsey and Humber Oil Refineries just west of Humber Road Jn. It dates from 18 Sep 1977, inserted into the console shell of an earlier (26 Oct 1967) Westinghouse NX panel provided for the commissioning of the lines associated with the oil refineries.

The one mile Lindsey branch makes a triangular junction with the main line; the NX panel labels the junctions logically Lindsey North Jn, Lindsey East Jn and Lindsey West Jn. However, these names are not on the Sectional Appendix (SA). Similarly, the western entrance to Humber Refinery is Conoco West Jn on the panel but has no distinct name on the SA (its east end junction is at Lindsey East Jn).

⑧Great Coates (Sidings) No1: (198m 34ch) It was time to visit the boxes of the former Grimsby District Light Railway, for many years now actually the 'Grimsby Light Single'. It was completed in 1906, linking Grimsby with the (then under construction) Port of Immingham. Access to the first of the three remaining boxes required a drive along the route of the former Grimsby District Electric Light Railway. This section ran as a tramway along Gilbey Rd but closed in 1961. The road is a cycle path, not open to public motor traffic, but NR retains vehicle access rights to the remaining lines and signal box.

There have been four boxes with 'Great Coates' in their name. Great Coates signal box was at Great Coates station on the Great Central Railway Manchester to Cleethorpes main line (the passenger route to Cleethorpes now). That box survived until 1987 but, of course, the station remains open.

Great Coates Junction box was also on the Manchester to Cleethorpes line, three quarters of a mile northwest of Grimsby Town station and controlled the junction for the original Grimsby Docks branch. However, as the docks expanded around the turn of the 20th Century, the branch was inadequate for traffic and was superseded by a new route from the main line at a triangular junction (Marsh Jns) half a mile further northwest. The original Docks branch (and Great Coates Junction box) closed in 1908.

Great Coates Sidings No1 (referred to as No1) and Great Coates Sidings No2 (No2) boxes were opened by the GCR in 1909 as part of this new route to the Docks. As the names suggest, they controlled access to large marshalling yards. West Marsh Sidings had 12 through roads and stretched half a mile from Marsh West Jn to No1 box; indeed, including the running lines and loops, 17 tracks are shown across here on the 25'' map of 1933. No2 was a further 500yd towards Grimsby Docks and controlled the junction between the light railway to Immingham and the branches to the Docks, as well as access to Great Coates Sidings - a huge yard for marshalling Alexandra Dock traffic. No2 box closed in 1966 and the junction between the Immingham line and the (much simplified) Docks branch was moved back to No1. The two single line branches then ran parallel for 30ch, before diverging as they do now.

The name board on the surviving box is still Great Coates Sidings No1 but the Sectional Appendix and box diagram refer to it as simply Great Coates No1. The final remnants of West Marsh Sidings were lifted in 2021 but the exit signal GC10 retains its semaphore arm! The branch to Grimsby Docks is still theoretically available for traffic but hasn't seen any for many years. The last working appears to have been a Class 60 light engine on Sat 10 Jan 2016 during a North Lincolnshire 'railtour' to test the new signalling. The most recent public railtour, on 11 Apr 2015, was the 'Humber Sceptre' (UK Railtours).

The One Train Working branch staff is no longer kept in the box but is locked away elsewhere for safe keeping. The single track 'main line' to Pyewipe Road is fully track circuited and worked by Acceptance Lever (Red-Brown Lever 7); trains are described on a single stroke bell. Traffic is very 'light', a handful of trains per year, including turning the three Scunthorpe iron ore tippler wagon sets six-monthly to even flange wear. However, the route is available if the main access via Humber Road Jn is blocked to Immingham. Despite its name, the line can handle the heaviest loaded oil trains to Kingsbury but capacity is severely restricted by the lack of loops/block sections and 20mph line speed (10mph in places). Until a few years ago at least, about 25% of all NR freight traffic passed through Immingham.












Continued in Part 4