One of the first changes to the line was the rebuilding of the sharp curve at Melton Junction, which was in use by November 15th 1886 (1). Prior to this, Up goods trains had to stop at Grimston to attend to their brakes before continuing downhill towards the sharp bend.

The local Sunday service commenced on Sunday February 7th 1887, consisting of a single early morning milk train from Nottingham to Old Dalby and back.

The map also shows Sysonby Curve - a connection that Parliament had authorised from the new Joint Line to the Midland's Syston & Peterborough Line, at a point just east of Melton Junction. The Curve has been well researched elsewhere (2) and although it was built by the contractors working on the Joint Line, it was not connected at the Midland end until 1883. The 1880 Board of Trade report for the Nottingham & Melton Line (3) records that there were nine spare levers in the Midland's Melton Junction Signal Box - in fact seven of these were reserved to operate the access onto the Sysonby Curve (2).

The Curve was opened for traffic on April 16th 1883, primarily to allow iron ore from Waltham to reach Holwell Works, but apparently it only carried slag traffic from the Midland to the Joint Line (2). Working Timetables show the Midland Daily Pickup running to Melton North from 1883 to 1887. The opening of the Holwell Extension in 1887 rendered Sysonby Curve redundant, being closed on December 1st 1887 and removed the following year (2). The embankment was clearly visible until the 1980s.

These are the facts - however I'm reasonably certain a similar curve was in use from 1876 to 1879 to assist with construction of the Joint Line. So where's the evidence?

Firstly look at the logic of the matter. It seems very unlikely that the contractors building the Joint Line would have preferred to move materials along the unfinished line from either Bottesford or Leicester when rail access was possible in the middle. After all, the Midland had already chosen Melton Junction as a distribution centre for construction materials, the exchange sidings and Signal Box being the first things to be built.

The Board of Trade report (3) for the Nottingham & Melton Line reports that one of the items which required attention before the line could open to passenger traffic was the removal of a "connection" with the Up line at Melton Junction. It is interesting to speculate exactly what this connection was. It might have been a contractor's access to the exchange sidings, but it could have been a link to the Joint Line.

Williams (4) is more specific in his 1876 comments on the line when he reports how (travelling south) "the new GNR line passes over, and a branch from the same line runs into the Nottingham & Melton Line shortly BEFORE the Syston line."

The building of the GNR Waltham Branch (Chapter 1) and Midland's Holwell Tramway was just the start of a number of branch lines and connections whose purpose was to transport extracted iron ore to furnaces. The next map illustrates the full extent of these lines which are described in more detail in Chapter 17.

This drawing shows the Iron Ore Branches which were in place by 1887. If you're interested in their background then see Chapter 17. If you're not - suffice to say they were used to transport massive quantities of iron ore to Holwell Works, over the Nottingham & Melton and Joint Lines.

Page 21