Board of Trade pressed the proprietors of the railway to improve it in certain respects. The directors considered that this might be the opportune time to sell the line to the Great Northern Railway. They offered to do so on the basis of £10 H&KJR shares being exchanged for £18 face value of GNR shares. The GNR considered this too high a price, but assisted the H&KJR in obtaining a loan for the necessary work. Post grouping After World War I the branch passenger trains were operated by a two coach set that had been converted from GNR steam railmotors nos 5 and 6. These vehicles were used until the end of passenger services on the line. (They were subsequently retained in service elsewhere, until 1959.) Following the Grouping Act, Kirkstead was renamed Woodhall Junction on 10 July 1922. The Horncastle Railway Company continued in existence until the grouping of the railways in 1923, following the Railways Act 1922; the company had never operated its own trains and was simply a financial entity. Ownership of the line passed to the London and North Eastern Railway. It had "rarely" paid less than 6% in dividend. Due to the outbreak of hostilities, the line was closed to passenger operation on 11 September 1939, but the service was reinstated from 4 December 1939. Nationalisation & closure In 1948 nationalisation of the railways took place, and British Railways took control. For some years the passenger carryings on the line were declining, and the passenger service was discontinued from 13 September 1954, following the increase of road bus competition. One goods train ran daily on the line until closure on 5 April 1971, although Woodhall Spa's goods siding had closed on 27 April 1964. For six months prior to final closure, after the passenger services on the line from Lincoln to Coningsby stopped, Horncastle goods trains were the only users of the former Loop Line between Bardney and Woodhall Junction. The solum of the line from Horncastle to Woodhall Spa was later acquired by Lincolnshire County Council and is now part of the Viking Way and Spa Trail long-distance footpaths. See also Lincolnshire lines of the Great Northern Railway Notes References External links Horncastle station and line history Line history on the Woodhall Spa Community Website Closed railway lines in the East of England Rail transport in Lincolnshire London and North Eastern Railway constituents