Local Railways

Britannia during the EUR 150 Celebrations in 1996

Before The Railways Came

Railways speeded up the movement of goods as well as people. They also drastically reduced the cost of moving goods such as coal.

Before the advent of the railway Ipswich received most goods by water at its port. However, to move those goods elsewhere in Suffolk was difficult and costly, with one exception - Stowmarket. The river Gipping had been canalised and barges could travel through Needham Market to Stowmarket.

In all other cases the pack horse or cart moving over rough tracks was the only means of moving goods. The railways changed that and it is easy to see why every market town in Suffolk wanted a connection to the railway network.

Railways had the transport market more or less to themselves until the first World War. The introduction of cheap mass produced road trucks for military use, coupled with the training of thousands of men to drive them, produced another transport revolution as significant as the coming of the railways in the first place.

Eastern Union Railway

The Eastern Counties Railway had opened a line from London to Colchester on 29th March 1843 but were making little progress in extending it northwards.

A group of Ipswich people led by John Chevalier Cobbold (of the local brewing family) obtained an Act of Parliament on 19th July 1844 authorising the Eastern Union Railway to be built from Colchester to Ipswich. The line was opened to goods traffic on 1st June 1846, with a full official opening 10 days later.

An extension to Bury was built by the nominally independent Ipswich and Bury Railway but this was absorbed by the E.U.R. as from 9th July 1847.

An extension to Norwich was opened on 12th December 1849, initially to a separate Victoria station, but linked to Thorpe as from 8th September 1851.

An agreement for joint working with the Eastern Counties Railway came into effect as from 7th August 1854 and the company finally lost its independence when the Great Eastern Railway was formed in 1862.

Great Eastern Railway

The Great Eastern Railway was formed on the 1st July 1862 by the amalgamation of the Eastern Counties, the East Anglian, the Newmarket, Eastern Union and Norfolk Railway Companies.

It created a virtual private monopoly of railway operation throughout East Anglia which was only breached by the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway in the south and the Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway in the north.

Always financially insecure, it nevertheless continued to serve its mixture of London suburbs and rural East Anglia rather well, despite the lack of heavy freight traffic. Train services and facilities were gradually improved and the company benefited from a loyal workforce. The locomotives produced by the Great Eastern Railway were generally sound and long lived, many surviving until the 1960s.

The Great Eastern Railway was absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway on 1st January 1923, ending 61 years of relative stability in local railways.

London & North Eastern Railway

The London and North Eastern Railway was formed by the amalgamation of the Great Northern, Great Central, Great Eastern, North Eastern, North British and Great North of Scotland railways.

The new company inherited a railway network run down from the demands of the First World War and, apart from the North Eastern Railway, a network that was financially weak. This was to hinder progress for all 25 years of the company's existence.

However, the new company did attempt to raise speeds and was successful in introducing streamlined express trains. In East Anglia, one such train was run, named the "East Anglian" and operated by one of two streamlined engines.

The Second World War brought more heavy wear and tear, with reduced maintenance. East Anglia became one huge airfield, mainly supplied by rail. After the war all of Britain's railways were nationalised, to become British Railways. The L.N.E.R. lasted exactly 25 years, one of the shorter lived operators of local railways.

British Railways

British Railways came into being on 1st January 1948. Locally the railways became part of Eastern Region, which roughly incorporated the former Great Eastern, Great Northern and Great Central railways.

The new organisation soon developed a new express steam locomotive, which was exhibited at the Festival of Britain in 1951. A fleet of these fine engines, known as "Britannias", was allocated to Stratford and Norwich to handle the express train services.

Later, in 1959, Ipswich became the first main line locomotive depot to be converted to diesel operation. Around the same time management of the local railways was delegated to a "Great Eastern Line" team, with the slogan "Progress....with Great Eastern".

In the late 1960s a national colour scheme was applied to all coaches and locomotives, but this was later replaced by the "Inter-City" branding. The 1980s brought in sectorisation, with Network South East running commuter trains as far as Ipswich, and Inter City running the expresses. 1994 saw the establishment of Anglia Railways in readiness for privatisation.

Anglia Railways

Anglia Railways was formed as a "Train Operating Company" within British Railways prior to its eventual privatisation. Unusually, Anglia Railways operate both express Inter City services and local railway services, albeit in a very small geographical area.

It seemed unlikely that such a small unit would exist for long before amalgamations or take-overs rationalised the number of train operators in Britain. Less clear is the future for the many branch lines left in the area. Only the London - Ipswich - Norwich service is ranked of main line status, all other services being rated as secondary.

An unusual feature is that Great Eastern Railways operated stopping train services from Ipswich to London. These were painted in the Network South East livery of light grey with red, white and blue stripes.

Freight Trains Today

Freight traffic on local railways has declined to little more than the freightliners serving the Port of Felixstowe.

As part of the preparations for privatisation five companies were created to deal with freight traffic. Rail Express Systems took over all parcels traffic and special charter trains. Three freight train companies, Loadhaul, Mainline and Transrail, were set up, roughly on a geographical basis.

All four of these companies have now been privatised and are operated as a subsidiary of Wisconsin Central, an American company. They intend to introduce new locomotives and seek new markets for railbourne freight.