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 station is actually going to be Bushey on the West Coast Mainline, I did end up getting a train to Stowmarket but I didn't do any filming because during my stay there I only saw 5 trains running through the station which wouldn't have made for good viewing really. I did give me a chance to experience a class 745 for a long distance run and I can safely say they are one of the best trains I have travelled on for quite some time.
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28 авг 2024
