The Lincolnshire potato railways were a network of private, 1 ft 11+1⁄2 in (597 mm) narrow gauge [1] farm railways which existed in the English county of Lincolnshire in the mid-20th century, for the purposes of transporting the annual potato crop between the fields and the nearest standard-gauge main line railhead.
There were two major systems of potato railways: [2] one located near the village of Nocton (the "Nocton Estate Light Railway" south of Lincoln), [3] centred on Nocton and Dunston railway station; the other to the north of Holbeach in the south of the county, [4] serving Fleet and Sutton Bridge stations. There were other, smaller systems elsewhere in Lincolnshire, for example at Deeping St Nicholas. [5]
All of the potato railways were closed by 1969; their duties taken over by farm lorries. Some of the rolling stock and track from the Nocton system have been preserved at the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway near Skegness. [6]