This Video is Property of Richard Chalklin!
1080p 50fps HD!
A busy evening at Stowmarket Station on the Great Eastern Mainline on Thursday 3rd September 2020. I haven't filmed at Stowmarket for a while so with an eventful evening in store i decided to see what would show up. From the usual passenger trains to various freights it was a evening well spent. My camera doesn't work well with lights in the dark as it causes a streak from the light.
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Stowmarket info:
Stowmarket railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line (GEML) in the East of England, serving the town of Stowmarket, Suffolk. It is 80 miles 9 chains (128.9 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between Needham Market to the south and Diss to the north. It is also the junction where the Ipswich to Ely Line joins the GEML. Its three-letter station code is SMK.
The station is currently operated by Abellio Greater Anglia, which also runs all trains that serve the station.
History:
The station was opened by the Ipswich & Bury Railway in 1846 with red brick main buildings in a flamboyant Jacobean manner by Frederick Barnes.
Building the railway from Ipswich to Bury St Edmunds proved challenging. When the Eastern Union Railway opened the line to Ipswich Stoke Hill railway station in 1846 this was located south of the existing tunnel. The Ipswich and Bury Railway built the tunnel which proved a challenge and then a further challenge awaited the railway's engineers at Stowmarket area where local marsh swallowed up a lot of material with test probes finding the bog was 80 feet deep! The railway employed George Stephenson's solution for the Chat Moss bog (a mere 40 feet deep) and a raft of brushwood and faggots was used to give the embankment a firm footing. The River Gipping was also diverted to aid the project.
On 26 November 1846 the first test train ran to Bury St Edmunds with stops at most stations on the route, accompanied by the inevitable lavish celebrations. The official opening followed on 7 December 1846 when a special train ran from Shoreditch (later Bishopsgate railway station) to a temporary station at Bury St Edmunds. The Board of Trade inspection took place on 15 December 1846 and the line opened for traffic on 24 December.
Description:
The station buildings were listed in 1972 and restored in 1987. Historic England describes the station buildings thus:
"Red brick with gault brick dressings under roofs clad in machine tiles. 1-3 storeys on high basements. Composition, in Jacobean style, is symmetrical, comprising a central one storey and attic block linked by single-storey ranges to taller 2-3 storey side blocks. Central block with Dutch gables to west, north and south, the west one facing the entrance and with an attic window. Windows generally are ovolo-moulded cross casements, cornices are saw-toothed. 2 square one-storey pavilions flank main entrance right and left. Recessed linking blocks had retaining walls with taller central doorways enclosing forecourt, but this remains now only to south side. Main outer blocks with cross casements, Dutch gables to all faces (north return of north block with twin shaped gables), and frontal (west) polygonal towers with doors at the bases and pierced parapets at the top. Gabled roofs carry romantically-placed 2- and 3-flued stacks. Platform canopies supported on square section welded steel piers of late C20. The piers rise to timber braces within which are cast-iron scrolled brackets. Inner face of main west range with 4 arches right and left of central entrance to booking hall."
Nicklaus Pevsner described it as "an elaborate piece of Elizabethan architecture by Frederick J Barnes, 1849. Red and yellow brick, symmetrical, with shaped gables and angle towers."
Goods facilities:
The down side yard had an extensive array of sidings and a two-track wooden goods shed. Outbound goods traffic at Stowmarket was primarily agricultural in nature with coal being a major inward commodity.
The up side also had a number of sidings some of which were located behind the up platform. Gun cotton was produced here first by Prentices and later by the New Explosives Company Limited.
Services:
Greater Anglia operate services calling at Stowmarket, comprising services between London Liverpool Street or Ipswich and Norwich, and other trains between Ipswich and Cambridge (hourly) or Peterborough (two-hourly) via the Ipswich to Ely Line. Limited additional services to/from Liverpool Street start or terminate at Stowmarket during rush hour.