Great Northern Railway and London & North Western Railway Joint Line from Market Harborough to Bottesford and Saxondale via Melton Mowbray

Scalford Station

At the south end of the Clawson tunnel and one mile 56 chains from Long Clawson and Hose Station is  the site of Scalford Station. The station was reached from the road to Melton Mowbray which ran on the west side of the line. The approach was easy and the staff dwellings were on the east side of the line, and opposite the front of the station, consisting of the usual station master's house and three cottages.

Waltham on the Wolds

Waltham on he Wolds never had an advertised service. It served special occasions like hunt meetings and the races at Croxton Park for both livestock and passengers. The goods yard carried agricultural and livestock feed, coal and tar. In June 1916 the line was extended to serve a military camp at Harroby. 

A year after Waltham station was opened on the 5th April 1883, the branch to quarries at Eaton was laid. The line turned north before reaching Waltham station. A feature of the Eaton Quarries line was a timber viaduct across the valley of a tributary stream to the River Devon. (see the Iron Ore Branches) Both the Waltham Iron Company and the Holwell lron Company worked quarries here the latter gaining access to Holwell Works at Melton by the extension of their branch from the MR over Hose tunnel to Wycombe Junction, which was 1 mile 36 1/4 ch. from Scalford Junction. The MR had running powers over the GNR Eaton Branch. In 1912 the quarry on the east side of the branch called Beastall's pit was opened with tracks of standard gauge rails as opposed to the 3ft gauge used in all the previous workings. Ironstone was loaded directly into the larger wagons by a Ruston dragline excavator. These workings closed in 1928.

South of Eaton and the River Devon the mining of ironstone from Windmill Hill area commenced in 1914. This stone was loaded into narrow gauge tip wagons for discharge into bunkers which loaded the skips of an aerial ropeway for conveyance over the river and road to a siding off the branch. See Stathern Ironstone Junction.

next page

Comments and feedback