Trains at: Ipswich, GEML, 18/12/21

An excellent afternoon session spent at Ipswich station on the Great Eastern Mainline where we see plenty of services from Greater Anglia and freight from Freightliner.

The original station was opened on the other side of the tunnel in 1846 by the Eastern Union Railway, the station was opened there because it provided easy access to the harbour where the steamboats would operate from Ipswich to London calling at Walton-on-the-Naze.

The current station wasn't opened until 1860.

The original station had a single through platform and some shorter bay platforms, this was purely because when the station was opened the traffic wasn't overly heavy which meant having a large station wasn't necessary. A new island platform was built in 1883 which would eventually become platforms 3 and 4 that we all know today. Interestingly though the original station building still stands to this day, albeit with a few modifications but fundamentally its the same building.

The GEML hadn't always been the most well maintained and a lot of things were starting to become very expensive to operate and maintain. One of the many things was the old signalling system still in use just North of Colchester. It was a mechanical system that was still in use and it wasn't until 1978 that this was recognised and eventually acted upon. This work eventually took place in 1980 when the line was going through the process of being electrified, because of the modernisation of the line it also meant that the signalling was improved upon.

During the period between 1980 and 1987 Ipswich was a hive of activity, this was because it wasn't until 1987 that the line from Ipswich to Norwich was fully electrified which meant that the intercity services would run using a class 86 from London to Ipswich and then switch to a class 47 for the remainder of the journey. And it would be the same thing going the other way, a 47 would bring the train down from Norwich and then give the train over to an 86 for the rest of the run.

Then over the years that followed the station went through periods of work to make things easier for staff and passengers.

My next and final station will actually be Clapham Junction as I sadly didn't have enough time to get Queens Town Road (Battersea) filmed.

If you would like to help support the channel you can do so by donating to the PayPal link found down below, any and all funds will go straight back into the channel to help better the content by allowing me to go further afield for you all.

You can find me on Facebook through the group Tornado922, there you will find regular updates, videos and photos from all of my goings on throughout 2021 and into 2022.

You can also find me on Instagram through the name tornado922 where it isn't just rail related content that I produce.