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100 years after it had opened, the closure notice, displayed at stations throughout Lincolnshire. The objection mentioned only delayed the enevitable and the line was closed in October 1983. With the proposed diversion of much freight off the East Coast Main Line, this will have to travel through Lincoln Central and has caused some concern due to the lenght of time the busy High Street level crossing will be closed. Certainly, the Avoiding Line at Lincoln would have been useful but, sadly, with the removal of bridges, embankments and development on the route, reopening is unlikely if not impossible. Fortunately, although officially closed the same time, the Sleaford Avoiding Line was left in situ and sees occasional use.

Another view of the High Street bridge, this time from the other side looking towards the city centre. Despite the way it appears, there was plenty of clearance for the Lincolnshire Road Car Bristol VR which was in no danger of being made into an open topper !

Close to the Lincoln City football ground (as illustrated by the graffiti) the line was carried by this bridge over Cross Street (one of many bridges along the route).

The track lifted about a year before, this view, alongside the Robey Works, looks west towards Canwick Road, the bridge over which was one of the first to be removed.

A view looking east. The bridge in the foreground carried the Lincoln A.L. over the former Lincoln - Honington Junction line which was closed on November 1st, 1965.

A view of the same bridge, this time taken from the trackbed of the former Honington route. It is hard to imagine that at one time, when engineering work was taking place on the East Coast Main Line, express trains would be diverted over this way - A4 60007 "Sir Nigel Gresley did such a trip on June 8th, 1958.

Profuse apologies for the appaling quality of this photograph taken from the rear of a dmu of Greetwell Junction. The rare nature of the subject matter merits its inclusion. The signal box can be clearly seen, and the points leading off to the avoiding line can be seen in the immediate forergound diverging towards the right from the main GE & GN Joints route to Lincoln Central. Just beyond the signal box, heading off to the left, was the former GNR route which ran alongside the River Witham to Bardney and Boston. At this time it was open only as far as Bardney for freight services.

A rather better view from the rear of another dmu. This has just come off the single track line from Sleaford to join the GN & GE Jt. route to Lincoln. The avoiding line can be clearly seen on the left. This was a relatively short line compared to the Lincoln A.L., and allowed freight and main line diverted trains to avoid having to pass through Sleaford station. The line saw much use, even after official closure, the ECML diverted trains. The trackbed has been left in situ and will hopefully see much use when freight trains once again return to the route.