LINCOLNSHIRE’S NEWEST RAILWAY STATION IS RUNNER-UP FOR “STATION OF THE YEAR” AWARD AT “RAILWAY OSCARS”
Seathorne Bank station at Skegness on the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway is a runner-up in the Station of the Year category at the Heritage Railway Association’s Awards ceremony – often dubbed the “Railway Oscars” – on Saturday 7th March 2026. The winner was the Cambrian Railway’s headquarters station at Oswestry. The other runners-up were Blue Anchor on the West Somerset Railway and Sheringham on the North Norfolk Railway.
Opening day for Seathorne Bank, as Swineshead Silver Band serenades steam loco “Jurassic” awaiting departure from Seathorne Bank.
The LCLR’s new terminus was opened in June 2025 by the Mayor of Skegness, Cllr. Jimmy Brooks in the Skegness Water Leisure Park. It incorporates the former Victorian-era Great Northern Railway Coal Office from Skegness Station, which had been used since 1947 as the office of the Park’s owners, Ellis Bros. (Contractors) Ltd., until three years ago.
The LCLR’s spokesman John Chappell said: “This is an extraordinary accolade for everyone who made Seathorne Bank station possible. We were up against strong competition from the other stations short-listed for the award and from the other many excellent entries.
“It’s the second accolade for Seathorne Bank. The construction of the station, incorporating the historic building, with a platform, access ramps, traditional lamps, benches and views across the fields to the Lincolnshire Wolds, was the winner of the Federation of Master Builders’ Small Renovation Project award in their Yorkshire & Trent Region”.
The Chairman of the LCLR’s Historic Vehicles Trust, Richard Shepherd, said: “Congratulations are due to the winners and to everyone on the LCLR who made it possible to be runners up in this prestigious competition. We were competing against the finest of Britain’s heritage railways. It shows the quality of work and the commitment of volunteers from the LCLR, the workforce and owners of the Water Leisure Park – which had contributed more than £8,000 to the project and the old coal office itself – and to the local authorities in the area, who had approved a grant of £24,250 from the Government’s UK Prosperity Fund. We were helped by Wainfleet joiner Mark Eldin and traditional signwriter Tim Fry from Martin Dales, near Woodhall Spa, who beautifully painted the station running-in board – its name board.
“At times we were working in cold, wet weather which waterlogged the ground and had to transport building materials by rail to the site – using our rolling stock built for the battlefields of the First World War to move troops, supplies and the wounded over otherwise impassable quagmires of mud.
“Seathorne Bank has transformed the railway – it has given the line a destination, an area to display our heritage and that of Ellis Bros., a small shop and a picnic area where visitors can enjoy the views across the fields and countryside to the Lincolnshire Wolds. It is bringing more visitors to Skegness who tell us they would otherwise not come to the town, so is benefiting the economy of the whole area.”
It’s not the first time the LCLR has been acclaimed in Heritage Railway Association Awards. In 2023 its restoration of the unique carriage, the “Queen Mary” from the Nocton Estates Railway, one of Lincolnshire’s famed potato railways, which carried potatoes and sugar beet for 23 miles across the Fens from Nocton to Bardney – won the Morgan Award for Rolling Stock Preservation. Restoration of the veteran Simplex diesel locomotive “Fred “– which had survived the East Coast Floods of 1953 to work on sea defences and at brickworks in Mablethorpe and Skegness – was a runner-up in the 2021 Awards and in 2009, the LCLR was a joint winner with the Lincolnshire Wolds Railway, for reopening their lines. When the LCLR’s unique First World War ambulance van was displayed and renovated in the Museum of Army Transport in Beverley it won a grant and an award from the Transport Trust.
Station Master Calvin chats to visitors at the new picnic area at Seathorne Bank station.