1st visit to Stowmarket on the Great Eastern Main Line and being the nearest station to the Junction for the Ipswich to Ely Line which diverges at Haughley Junction North of the station.
Featuring services by Greater Anglia and some freight as well
Stowmarket was first opened in 1846 by the Ipswich & Bury Railway although at the time of constructing the railway engineers faced some difficulties in particular when the local marsh of the area swallowed up a lot of material.
Test probes used at the time found the bog was deep as 80 feet below ground which in the end led to the solution by George Stephenson which included brushwood and faggots to keep the embankment a more solid footing which was a similar process used in constructing the Chat Moss Line and as well as re-routing the River Gipping.
The first train ran through Stowmarket to Bury St Edmunds to the North from Shoreditch on December 7th 1846 later becoming Bishopsgate which by 1876 was replaced completely by todays London Liverpool Street
The line North is linked to Haugley Junction where the line towards Bury St Edmunds and Norwich split
The latter opened in stages between 1847 and 1849 with firstly from Haugley to Finningham in June 1848, Finningham to Burston in July 1849 before finally reaching Norwich Victoria in December 1849 Now todays Norwich.
The Grade II Listed station buildings remain intact which were restored in 1987
In fact two years earlier was only when Electrification of the GEML North of Ipswich didn't reach Stowmarket
Which at the time featured platform lengthening which originally could accommodate 5 cars nowadays can accommodate 12 cars
However it wasn't until May 12th 1987 when the first electric train hauled by a Class 86 ran from London to Norwich which originally up until then required change of locos at Ipswich before continuing onto Norwich.
They were later replaced in 2004 by Class 90 sets and nowadays since March 2020 all Intercity services on GEML are provided by Class 745s built by Stadler in Bossang, Switzerland which first entered service in September 2019.
Hourly Norwich trains call here as well as services towards Bury St Edmunds provided by Cambridge and 1 every 2 hour Peterborough which both originate from Ipswich which since July 2019 are now operated by Class 755 Flirts
The Class 755s can operate in electric and Diesel which in fact at Stowmarket to enable to access the Ipswich to Ely Line have to change to Diesel mode. The only other examples of this are at Ely for Norwich - Stansted Airport services or sometimes at Ipswich.
Haugley Junction is also busy for Freight traffic as well which enables access to Felixstowe South or Felixstowe North.
The former goods sidings nowadays is occupied by a car park whilst the footbridge replaced the original for electrification which the original is still preserved at Weybourne station on the North Norfolk Railway.
Music used:
JJD - Adventure
Music provided by NCS
Video link:
NoCopyrightSounds
• JJD - Adventure | Glit...
Filmed on Saturday December 3rd 2022 on iPhone 14 Pro and edited on iMovie
#stowmarket #greateranglia #greateasternmainline #suffolk