Opened in 1932 to replace inadequate facilities at Keadby, Roger Griffiths and John
Hooper offer the bigger picture in terms of the activities of Frodingham engine shed
and particularly its role in servicing the incoming and outgoing traffic needs of
the local steel industry, which led to countless visiting locomotives.
Viewed from Brigg Road overbridge, Scunthorpe, WD 2-8-0 No 90490 of Frodingham shed
is facing west on loaded iron ore tipplers on 21 May 1953. Dominating the scene is
the works of the Frodingham Iron & Steel Co Ltd, established in 1864, while the Appleby
Ironworks to the south of here dates from 1876. By the date of this view these were
known as the North and South works but were collectively the Appleby-Frodingham Works
of the Appleby-Frodingham Steel Co, itself part of United Steel Companies Ltd. Post-1934,
massive investment south of here had resulted in the closure of the North Works circa 1950. Around the time of this photograph there were five main line connections to
the Appleby-Frodingham site, with all used for incoming traffic from BR, both loaded
and empty trains, and collection from three of them, with entrances ‘A’ and ‘C’ in
this vicinity. Also of note is the former station building of ‘Scunthorpe & Frodingham’
which was in fact a replacement for the first station to the east side of a level
crossing and was west of the same road. The first station served from 1 October 1866
until replaced in October 1886. The level crossing itself was swept away by LNER developments
that saw Brigg Road overbridge replace it and the second station replaced by a third,
which is some way behind the photographer and opened in March 1928. Roy Edgar Vincent/Transport
Treasury
Regular Steam Days readers will know that engine sheds are generally at the heart of our research, but
while the infrastructure of these locations, and indeed their changing allocation,
are centre stage, we like to make sure that there is more. That ‘more’ is really an
understanding of why the engine shed in question was needed in the first place, so,
for example, what were its key operations? Sometimes this can be offered as sample
passenger timetables, but for sheds such as Frodingham there was very little in terms
of passenger work, and indeed, that will be covered more fully when in due course
we consider the shed’s limited 4-4-0 allocation as part of a class-by-class follow
up, so here we concentrate on a deep dive into the goods/heavy freight needs of the
Frodingham and Scunthorpe in the steam era, in effect we present, from beside
