Cleethorpes Railway Station.

Cleethorpes Railway Station.

Station Approach leading to Cleethorpes Railway Station.

The clock tower is a well known local landmark. 

Cleethorpes station was opened in 1863 by what later became the Great Central Railway and linked the coastal resort to Sheffield and Manchester. The station layout was remodelled in 1889 to give six platforms and two carriage sidings extending in the direction of Grimsby. By 1891 the carriage sidings had been increased to six and extended to a new signal box at Suggitt's Lane. This layout also included a turntable to the rear of the signal box. A 1910 report into work carried out the previous year refers to new crossovers to enable trains to arrive and depart from any platform. The signal box by this time had 100 levers and was jointly the third largest on the Great Central system with Marylebone.

The original GCR station buildings on platform one were replaced by the current single storey BR-era structures in 1961-2,[1] but they still stand and are now used as train crew accommodation.

Until 1985 the station and surrounding area was still controlled by a mechanical signal box with full semaphore signalling, including double track throughout to Grimsby and beyond. However, a resignalling scheme for the entire area saw the line to Grimsby singled & the number of platforms reduced to four (numbers 1–3 and 5). Platform 5 was renumbered 4 and the Diesel Fuelling Road is what used to be platform 6. The signal box was closed & demolished and new colour light signals installed which were operated from a panel in the signal box at Pasture Street in Grimsby. In later works the platform surfaces have been rebuilt to modern specifications.

In the 1970s Cleethorpes had a twice daily return service to London Kings Cross, typically hauled by a Class 55 Deltic.

Even after resignalling until the withdrawal of locomotive hauled cross-Pennine services and the through Kings Cross service, evening time at Cleethorpes was a very busy time with most arrivals requiring cleaning through the carriage washer, fuelling on the small fuel point and shunting into the various departure positions for the following morning. Locomotives returned to the diesel depot at Immingham for overnight servicing, and the High Speed Train from Kings Cross was fuelled at the fuelling point at the rear of what used to be called Hawkeys Cafe via a siding that went round the back of the Wash Plant control building and joined up with the old Platform 6 road.

The Mermaid Cafe at Cleethorpes Railway Station.

As of 2004 only platforms 2 and 3 remained in use, but as of 2007, Platform 1 has reopened and all platforms have recently been fitted with new information displays. Other platforms at the station remain unused are in a state of neglect as sand has blown from the nearby beach onto the lines and formed drifts. Platform 1 is used by only First TransPennine Express Services to Manchester, platform 2 for Northern Rail services to Barton on Humber, and platform 3 for peak hour services to/from Sheffield (including the Saturdays-only service via Brigg & Retford).

About half a mile north are the station's cleaning facilities, which are used in the evenings by the units off the TPX Manchester trains. These first arrive on no.3 platform then go out to the washer and then on to the fuelling point. This happens every night with all four units that are stabled there.

First TransPennine Express have built a small depot, to provide stabling, light maintenance and re-fuelling at Cleethorpes for their DMU fleet. The Class 153 units used by other operators do not berth here overnight but work in and out either in service or empty from Doncaster (Northern)/Lincoln (EMT).

All information courtesy of Wikipedia.