Greater Anglia Trains at Colchester on July 27th 2021

#greateranglia #colchester #greaterangliatrains #stadler #greateasternmainline #colchesterstation

3rd visit to Colchester Station on the Great Eastern Main Line and Sunshine Coast Line featuring services from Greater Anglia and a one off Freightliner freighter as well.

Colchester station was opened by the Eastern Counties Railway on March 29th 1843.

The main reason for it being referred to Colchester North locally is to avoid confusing it of nearby Colchester Town a stop on the Sunshine Coast Line.

That was originally opened in 1866 by the Tendring Hundred Railway although as St Boltoph's although it wasn't until July 8th 1991 when that was renamed Colchester Town.

However Colchester Town is open Monday - Saturdays with no services on Sundays although the only exception is either during engineering works on the GEML or December when it's opened alternatively to provide services to Walton-on-the-Naze.

The unusual and sometimes confusing layout of Colchester station dates when it was reconstructed 1962 at the time of electrification with Platform 1 used by trains mostly to Clacton or Colchester Town or sometimes stopping Ipswich services or ECS movements from Colchester Carriage Sidings which can be accessed from the mainline on approach to Colchester or in the other direction from Platform 3.

Platforms 2 and 3 are used for mainline services from Ipswich, Norwich as well as Peak Hour services from Harwich International or Harwich Town. Platform 4 is mostly used by services from Clacton and Colchester Town to London Liverpool Street and connecting to Platform 3 makes it the longest mainline platform in the UK being at 620 metres or 2034 feet long.

Platform 5 is used for terminating hourly services from Walton-on-the-Naze and reversing services to and from Colchester Town.

At one time services from Sudbury via the Gainsborough Line ran to Cambridge until 1967 when it was cut back to Sudbury which would of terminated at Platform 1 at Colchester was cut back in the Mid 1990s to Marks Tey

Although Sudbury can serve Colchester however only either first train of the day to Sudbury or last train of the day from Sudbury with the branch now provided by Class 755/3 Flirts entered service on the branch in January 2020.

The Class 745 Flirts built by Stadler replaced the Class 90s between November 2019 and March 2020 as well as taking over Stansted Express services from the Class 379s

Although 20 have been built however 10 used for Intercity being 745/0s and the 745/1s used for Stansted Express although differ in layout with 745/0s include 1st Class whilst the Stansted Express sets don't include 1st class.

The 745s and 755s are maintained at Crown Point, Norwich

The Class 321s and 322s days in service are on borrowed time and are being replaced with Class 720s which at the time of filming only the 720/5s were being introduced with the 720/1s still to come.

In September 2020 the Class 720s order for the 22 720/1s was changed from 10 car sets to 5 car sets which is to enable flexibility which is a similar process for the 720/6s due to be introduced on c2c with that being increased to 12 sets instead of 6.

The Class 720s built in Litchurch Lane, Derby by Bombardier although since January 29th 2021 all Bombardier transportation was merged into Alstom.

They will also replace the Class 317s on the West Anglia Main Line which like the Class 321s and 322s are on borrowed time although the Class 379s their future at the time of filming is still unknown.

Featuring
Cameron’s Railway Photography

Music used:
JJD - Adventure
Music provided by NCS

Video link:
NoCopyrightSounds
   • JJD - Adventure | Glitch Hop | NCS - Copyr...  

Filmed on Tuesday July 27th 2021 on iPhone 11 and edited on iMovie