Retford railway station is on the East Coast Main Line serving the town of Retford, Nottinghamshire, England. It is 138 miles 49 chains (223.1 km) down the line from London King's Cross and is situated between Newark North Gate and Doncaster on the main line. It has four platforms, two of which serve the main line and the other two, located at a lower level and at right angles to the first pair, serve the Sheffield to Lincoln Line.
The station in 2005
Up Leeds express in 1954
An InterCity 125 at the station following electrification
Retford low-level platform, showing the main line crossing and the barrow crossing
The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a 393-mile long (632 km) electrified railway between its southern terminus at London King's Cross station and Edinburgh Waverley via Peterborough, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Great Britain running broadly parallel to the A1 road. The main line acts as a 'spine' for several diverging branches, serving destinations such as Cambridge, Leeds, Hull, Sunderland and Lincoln, all with direct services to London. In addition, a few ECML services extend beyond Edinburgh to serve Glasgow Central, although the principal London-Glasgow route is the West Coast Main Line (WCML).
LNER Azuma at Burnmouth
A GNR Stirling Single express locomotive of the late 19th century
LNER Class A3 No. 2547 Doncaster hauls the daily Flying Scotsman in 1928.
Class 55 "Deltic" locomotive at Edinburgh in 1980. These were the main express locomotives on the ECML in the 1960s and 1970s.