bost

On September 12th and 13th of 1998, a special event was held at

Boston to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the arrival of

railways in the town. These photos recapture the occasion.

The main displays were held by the station and on the Port of Boston

sidings. Celebrity guest at the latter location was the 1898 GNR

locomotive "Henry Oakley" which was a static exhibit.

Another static exhibit at the PoB sidings was this preserved class 03

shunter (D2112). Up to the late 1970's it was a type familiar deployed

on goods duties at the Dock and Boston.

Shunter D3871 is actually preserved but is employed at Boston Dock

to deal with the wagons of the twice weekly steel train.

EWS was represented by 56091. After several years of withdrawal,

freight traffic was restored to Boston in the form of a twice weekly

steel train - a covered steel wagon is illustrated below with the famous

tower of St, Botolph's Church (the "Stump") in the background.

The Nene Valley Railway's "Thomas the Tank Engine" was also there

as an attraction for children, although there were no shortage of adults

taking the unique opportunity to ride up and down one of the freight

only PoB sidings. A temporary platform alongside the siding was

constructued specially. All three photographs were taken on the

Saturday. The following day a problem with the steam locomotive

resulted in it and the carriage being powered by the shunter D3871.

A specxial certificate was issue on

board the "Thomas" steam train.

Elsewhere in the town was an exhibition of ephemera at the Guildhall,

an Ale Festival and a series of railway films shown in the cinema. The

other major venue was the railway station itself where a large tent

containing many stalls had been erected. There were also some visitors

including the Lincolnshire Vintage Vehicle Society's ex Lincolnshire

Road Car Bristol MW 2245 (OVL 468) with a reminder of the long

withdrawn service 36B to Sleaford.

A colection of vintage cars on the station forecourt. As can be seen,

Saturday was rather wet but fortunately the weather was much better

next day.