The electric railway was built primarily to carry workers between Grimsby and Immingham Dock which the Great Central had built on a greenfield site in a sparsely populated area. The line was also built by the Great Central and remained in railway ownership up to closure in 1961. It therefore appeared in railway timetables and it was possible to buy through tickets between any of the stops on the line and anywhere on the national railway network, though there never was any physical connection with any conventional track, nor with the tramways in Grimsby and Cleethorpes. In modern parlance the vehicles would be described as trams, but they were usually referred to locally as "tramcars", with related things being called names such as "tramcar halt" and "tramcar bridge" with "car" a more common short form than "tram."
Location and facilities
The middle section of the line passed through thinly populated marshy farmland. The line was single track with passing places every half mile. The points at the ends of the loops were spring loaded as the line was unsignalled, motormen drove by line of sight. All eight passing loops served as halts, with passengers alighting onto cinders beside the tracks. For the benefit of the few who took advantage of these facilities in the early years each passing loop carried its number on a metal plate. Initially the halts were known as No. 1 Passing Place, No. 2 Passing Place etc. Some were named informally at first, but these names stuck and had become official by 1915. The halt was just outside the western Grimsby Borough Boundary where the line made a sweeping curve known locally as "Tattenham Corner." This curve led to the second of the line's two "hills" - the climb over Cleveland Bridge - officially named after the Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company which built the combined road and tram over rail bridge on behalf of the Great Central Railway but known locally as "The Tip". No platforms ever existed at any of the stopping places; passengers were expected to board and alight from the roadway or trackside cinders according to the location. The "stations" were much more commonly referred to as "halts" or "stopping places." Passengers bought their tickets from conductors on board the cars. Cleveland Bridge Halt was a compulsory stop; at Request Stops people hailed a car by giving a clear signal to the motorman or conductor as appropriate.
The lines from the station
Tramcars arrived from the west along conventional rails on a reserved way running parallel to the conventional Grimsby District Light Railway, though there was no physical connection between the two. Grooved tram tracks were used eastwards over the bridge and along the street section into Grimsby. There was also a grooved, street running section around Immingham Town. Loops 3, 4, 6 and 7 were removed in 1917, the materials being contributed to the war effort. This did not affect the halt at Cleveland Bridge.
Services
Unusually among British tramways services ran round the clock, particularly to provide for railway workers based at Immingham engine shed, whose duties often involved starting or finishing at unsocial hours. Traffic was highly peaked, with convoys of tramcars leaving and arriving to match shift changes at the dock. It was normal for several tramcars to queue to enter and leave Cleveland Bridge at the peaks. After 1945 industry was attracted to the south bank of the Humber, steadily transforming the landscape from rural to urban, though few workers at the new plants lived locally. This led to an increase in ridership and numbers boarding and alighting at Cleveland Bridge. This evolutionary growth was greatly surpassed on 1 July 1956 when the street running section east of Cleveland Bridge closed and the halt became the line's eastern terminus. Some people found other ways to get to work, but most who had previously boarded at stops to the east now made their way to Cleveland Bridge on foot or by bike or on one of the new buses provided. A waiting shelter was erected for this upsurge in waiting passengers. The east coast floods of 1953 did considerable damage to the tramway's infrastructure, with passengers having to walk between tramcars marooned either side of flooded or washed out sections. In 1956 over a million passengers used the line and even with deliberate rundown a quarter of a million used it in its last twelve months up to closure in July 1961.
Closure
The line took some years to die. As described above, it was cut back at the Grimsby end in 1956. In 1959 it was reduced to peak services only, it disappeared from Bradshaw and through ticketing beyond the line was withdrawn. Formal closure of the line and Great Coates Level Crossing tramcar halt came on Monday 3 July 1961, with the last cars running on Saturday 1 July 1961, when a convoy of six tramcars set off from Immingham Dock, nominally at 14:03. The last tramcar of this convoy and therefore the last into Cleveland Bridge was Number 4.
Aftermath
The first track on the line to be removed was at Immingham Dock tramcar station, to give increased parking space. The process of demolition was piecemeal and even in 2013 many hints of the line remained, such as spun concrete masts near Immingham Town.
Former Services
Further material
, contains a fine archive section on the tramway
, solely about the tramways of Immingham, Grimsby & Cleethorpes
