The Yellow Brick Road - GNR ballast and bricks - Kings Cross - Deeping Lakes

The Great Northern Railway excavated the gravel used to ballast its tracks from around 1870 until 1897 at what is now known as Deeping Lakes. In addition a brick works on site produced an estimated two million bricks for the railway. These yellow bricks are prominent at Kings Cross station but were used for most of the companies buildings.

The cessation of activity at the site corresponds with the death of Patrick Stirling and the subsequent appointment of a new Chief Mechanical Engineer, Henry Ivatt, who upgraded the permanent way to accommodate heavier traffic.

A current link to the

Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust page for Deeping Lakes:

http://www.lincstrust.org.uk/reserves/Deeping-Lakes


I always wondered why The colour of the "ballast" printed on tinplate track bases by Hornby Dublo was sand coloured.