Cambridge-St Ives branch in the late 80's/90's

[JMH77]

Hi all,

Bit of a long shot but I can find very little information on the above.
I grew up not far from where the branch joined the main line at Chesterton sidings and have many very happy memories from my childhood of growing up in this area. One of the best is the sound and sight of a pair of class 31's with the sand train from St Ives passing by. Where I grew up behind our back garden was an industrial estate with the railway immediately behind that. Even so you could hear the train coming some way off and I remember quickly getting dressed on a Saturday morning and rushing to the bottom of the garden to catch a glimpse of it as it paused, waiting to re-join the mainline.
I've found a lot of pictures online from earlier days but none more recent, particularly of this working.
It would be great to hear from anyone who has any pictures they can share or who may have been local and remembers said train. Sadly now long gone and replaced by the guided busway.

 

[flymo]

The ever helpful Disused Stations website http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/h/histon/index.shtml has some info. This link is for Histon Station but there are links within that page to other stations on the line.

 

[a good off]

There are a few shots in the Cambridge album here.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/52087249@N07/sets/

 

[JMH77]

There are a few shots in the Cambridge album here.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/52087249@N07/sets/

Some fantastic pictures there, thank you. Brings back memories of around Cambridge station in the good old days!

 

[Taunton]

It wasn't always a branch. A lot of freight from London up to the big marshalling yard at March and beyond used to go this way from Cambridge round through St Ives and continue up the former line to March, avoiding the main line through Ely which was pretty well occupied with passenger services.

Further back, there was once a through service by Midland Railway, later LMS, trains from Kettering through Kimbolton and Huntingdon, which used this line from St Ives into Cambridge. This was closed to passengers around 1960. It was one of the routes which allowed the Midland to offer through goods services from London to unlikely places, for they tried for goods traffic from London to Cambridge this way, just like they did from London to Birmingham (via Burton) and even London to Bristol.

 

[33056]

Can remember having a trip down there in a class 310 behind two class 20s (20004 and 20047) on 29/09/1990 during a Cambridge gala day (see HERE for details).

The next time I had any dealings with the line was in 1992 when I came across the train staff for the line whilst sorting some paperwork out for my manager; the line had been closed by then and, as the manager responsible for the area, he had custody of it.