The old moaner is BACK
Located about half way between Immingham Docks and Scunthorpe Steel works, it the busiest station in Britain for freight. Coal, Petroleum, Enterprise, Iron Ore and Steel all pass through in elephantine quantities. There is an average of 6 or 7 fph particularly in the evening with the rush of oil and enterprise trains.
There is a freight yard at Barnetby but only a few trains use it. The vast majority of the freight is through traffic travelling to the Immingham complex or the Oil Refineries at Lindsey and Humber.

Tpically 150 freights in a 24/hour day pass Barnetby:
32x Iron Ore (16 loaded & 16 empties)
25x Oil
16x Enterprise/Steel
30x coal loaded & 30x empties
About 10 to 20 other traffic *Other traffic include light loco moves, departmental (loco-hauled or OTP), coke, scrap, non-oil chemicals and cars*
Thats about a quarter of a million tonnes of freight passing through this station every day.
Despite the enormous quantities of goods, the variety of motive power is becoming worse by the week as DBS store all their locos and lose traffic. This is mainly blamed on the reduction in heavy traffic such as oil and iron ore.
Without being too specific, typically the GM power dominates everything. The iron ore is no longer hauled by 60's. It is now worked by class 66's with reduced loads.
The oil traffic is mostly 66-hauled though this is something in which the odd remaining 60 will appear on. The oil trains are now the best bet for the remaining 60's. Also some of the oil trains are worked by FHH and hauled by 66/6s.
Enterprise traffic is now universally handled by 66's. They consist of a variety of goods, mainly finished steel.
Coal traffic between Immingham and Scunthorpe Steel Works is worked entirely by EWS class 66's with modified HTA wagons, while coal from Immingham to the Power Stations is a mix of FHH 66/5s with HHA's, EWS 66/0s with HTA's, GBRf 66/7s with HJA's and more recently Fastline coal traffic with 66/3s, hired in 66/4s and 66/7s.
October-December there is a MWFO 'sandite' to Grimsby Docks worked by top & tail DRS Class 20's. The train thunders through Barnetby in the early afternoon. You get to see it twice as it works back from Grimsby to cunthorpe. It is also rare to go through a session at Barnetby without seeing an OTP like a Tamper or Stoneblower.

DBS traffic is becoming increasingly 66 based. Only hope that the DBS 60 fleet recovers, it wasnt so long ago when the class 56's finished in 2003/2004 and the 37's before that.

Despite all the negatives, the station environment is very pleasant as it is a very small quiet station (between trains) with just a few trainspotters and even fewer passengers. Its surrounded by quiet fields and moors.
The station layout consists of 4 through platforms though they are for mainly for handling the freight (crew changes). The area is controlled by excellent semaphore signals with add more atmosphere to the station. Trains approaching (in both directions) can be spotted from a long distance away, can be seen approaching at least a minute before they pass through the station, and the 'peg' goes up about 5 minutes before a train passes through, so you are rarely caught out. Though most of the trains stop for a crew change. The sound of a Class 60 re-strating a 3000 tonne oil train on a quiet night is alright. Not exactly like a "Tractor" but its at the top of the thrash league for 2008 standards.
Just to put a downer on it, the station is windswept and is usually cold, especially in the Winter, with biting winds and it feels about 15 degrees colder than it really is.
The passenger service is an hourly trans-pennine Manchester-Cleethorpes always worked by the Class 185's. There is also a East Midlands Grimsby-Nottingham service once every 2 hours, which intensifies during the peak, and is worked by 150s, 153s, 156s and 158s. All passenger trains stop at the station. There are also a few ECS moves in the morning and early evening, particularly with the Barton-On-Humber to Grimsby service swapping units for re-fueling and cleaning.
There is enough here to keep any trainspotter satisified. The variety is shit, but where isnt it? In summary, expect 60s, 66s (/0/3/4/5/6/7/9), 15Xs/185s and OTP. Bold indicating the classes that dominate.
Who knows maybe when Freighliner get their new "Power Haul" Class 68s they will go through Barnetby as well? I can't wait. Though the new "Power Haul" engines may not look much better than a 66, they certainly will sound good, as they have GE engines instead of GM, they will not ying. The "Power Haul" engines remind me of a new verion of the class 58.

WARNING - For anyone doing an overnight at Barnetby. The signaller turns the station lights off at 02:25 to save energy and they dont go back on until 05:15 the next morning. If you make yourself known to the signaller he MIGHT leave the lights on. Otherwise its as dark as anything can get. Its all sounds and smells only from this point. All you'll see is the headlights of the engines, unless you bring a torch.
You are allowed to stay on the station all night you wont get kicked off like you do at Stafford and Carlisle. The station has to stay open all night for crew changes.

Excellent location for freight traffic. Nice clean station with great views in both directions. Best to get there early has most traffic in the afternoons are returning traffic. Good chip shop just up the road and a good pub opposite the station. Highly reccomended for GBRF loco's.

Just to add that Barnetby is one of the best freight locations in the country. It is at a junction where the Scunthorpe, Brigg & Lincoln lines meet and head East to the Humber South Bank factories, Immingham Depot and Cleethorpes(passenger trains). There are regular EWS trains (usually a 60 or 66), Freightliner 66's, FTX 158's, Central 153's and the occasional scrap train to Immingham Railfreight Terminal. There is usually an Engineering Unit stabled in the sidings alongside the station. The end of the platform is a great place for photography as is the bridge.
If you walk a few blocks past the spar shop on the main road there is a chip shop but i'm not sure about the opening hours.
You can see examples of Barnetby traffic on my website at
http://gbtrains.fotopic.net

Barnetby offers the best for spotting in the local area. The station hotel offers good value accomodation for anyone wishing to base themselves here for local spotting for a couple of days. The station lights go off in the early hours narrowing night spotting chances but during the summer, good nights can be had if the skies are clear. The station is easy to find and is well signposted from the M180/A15 junction. It is served from the Doncaster area by Arriva trains at this moment, however this changes to first Group with class 175's in the near future, Arriva having lost the franchise. Barnetby is also served from the Lincoln direction by central trains.
Food wise there are a couple of options. The station hotel does excellent meals at reasonable prices or for the quick snack brigade, there is a Spar located in the village. To get there from the station, walk down the approach ramp, turn right under the bridge and keep walking. The shop is on the right hand side about five minutes walk away.
there are good photographic points available from the station, with the semaphore signals being an added bonus. The station has a large monsterous footbridge with ramps and this offers a variety of views.