did not halt the decline, although in the last days of operation, five trains were run on Saturdays, three on Wednesdays and two on other weekdays. The last trains ran on 15 July 1933, with all passenger services suspended from Monday 17 July. In addition to timetabled services, excursions were run, with Epworth, the birthplace of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism being popular. The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway published a booklet entitled Epworth: What to see and how to get there to entice people to travel there from Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire. Excursions from the Isle of Axholme to Blackpool were popular, with over 600 passengers on such a trip in 1913, and 750 visiting the Great Yorkshire Show at Hull in 1922. Excursions to Blackpool continued to be run even after timetabled passenger services were withdrawn. Early freight traffic consisted of agricultural products, including carrots, celery, clover, peas, potatoes, sugar beet and swedes, together with large volumes of peat from Swinefleet Works near Reedness Junction and from Hatfield Works on the Hatfield Moor Branch. Traffic into the area included manure. In the 1920s, stations notified the control centre at Goole of the number of wagons they would need for consignments of peas and potatoes, and could also request additional trains. 4,000 tons of green peas were despatched during the 1926 growing season, and in the following year, 7,000 bundles of celery left Epworth station in a three-day period. Traffic started to decline in the 1930s, as motor lorries began to take some of the trade. By 1937, there were only three workings each day, and those were run if required. The peat works at Hatfield was still supplying an average of six wagon-loads per day. Closure The line closed to passengers on 15 July 1933. The section from Haxey Junction to Epworth was closed on 1 February 1956, by which time most of the traffic was peat, supplemented by seasonal sugar-beet. The branch to Hatfield Moors was rarely used from 1962, when small diesel locomotives had replaced steam traction, and was closed on 30 September 1963. The rest of the system closed on 5 April 1965. Although closed, the line was not lifted, and was maintained as a long siding until 1972, on behalf of the Central Electricity Generating Board, who paid for its maintenance. This was to facilitate the maintenance of the stators from