Sudbury Branch Line
Encyclopedia
The Gainsborough Line is the marketing name of the Sudbury Branch Line, a single track railway line running through the rural area between Sudbury
and Marks Tey
in England
with connecting trains from Marks Tey station
to London, Colchester and other destinations. Prior to the Beeching Axe
the line, known as the Stour Valley Railway
also served Cambridge
, Long Melford
, Clare
and Haverhill
. The line is part of the Network Rail Strategic Route 7
, SRS 07.10 and is classified as a rural line.
opened on 9 August 1865 running from Cambridge via Shelford
, Long Melford
, Clare
and Haverhill
to join the current line from Sudbury to Marks Tey. The Shelford to Sudbury section was closed on 6 March 1967 as part of the Beeching Axe
.
In December 2006 the line was designated as a "Community Railway" by the Transport Minister, and is part of the Essex and South Suffolk Community Rail Partnership. The line is presently named after the painter Thomas Gainsborough
who was born in Sudbury, and was previously named the Lovejoy
Line, after the BBC
television series filmed in the Sudbury area. All passenger services on the line are operated by National Express East Anglia, which runs an approximately hourly shuttle service seven days a week. The first and last trains of the day run from and to Colchester
, and one train each weekday morning runs to and from Colchester after the peak commuter services.
During July 2005 the line received around £3 million of investment, which saw around 5 miles (8 km) of old jointed track replaced with new continuous welded rail. August 2006 saw further investment, to replace around 6 miles (10 km) of track, leaving just the Chappel Viaduct and Lamarsh to Sudbury sections in need of modernisation. This work was completed in July 2007.
The Suffolk County Council
Public Transport Strategy of February 2006 proposed the creation of an additional station for the line, at Great Cornard
, approximately 1 miles (2 km) from Sudbury station.
It was designated by the Department for Transport
as a community rail
line in November 2006.
Official posters appeared at all stations on the line shortly before the Summer 2008 timetable came in to effect on Sunday 18 May, advising travellers that the 1922 and 2008 services from Sudbury would be request stop at the intermediate statons.
On 17 August 2010, the 17:31 Sudbury - Marks Tey collided with a slurry tanker near Little Cornard; this incident has launched an inquest into the safety of telephone-activated level-crossings all over Britain.
at Chappel
, and the East Anglian Railway Museum
is located alongside the station at Chappel & Wakes Colne.
of W6, and a line speed of 50 mph.
Unlike other branch lines in the area, such as the Braintree branch
, the Gainsborough Line is not electrified
and so trains are currently formed of diesel multiple unit
s. Specifically, Class 156
on weekdays and Class 153
at the weekends.
Sudbury, Suffolk
Sudbury is a small, ancient market town in the county of Suffolk, England, on the River Stour, from Colchester and from London.-Early history:...
and Marks Tey
Marks Tey
Marks Tey is a large village in Essex, England located six miles west of Colchester.Marks Tey railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line, and is a junction for the Sudbury Branch Line to Sudbury...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
with connecting trains from Marks Tey station
Marks Tey railway station
Marks Tey is a railway station serving the village of Marks Tey in Essex, England. The station is located on the Great Eastern Main Line and is also a junction for the Sudbury Branch Line.The station is served by National Express East Anglia...
to London, Colchester and other destinations. Prior to the Beeching Axe
Beeching Axe
The Beeching Axe or the Beeching Cuts are informal names for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard...
the line, known as the Stour Valley Railway
Stour Valley Railway
The Stour Valley Railway is a partially closed railway line that ran between , near Cambridge and in Essex, England. The line opened in sections between 1849 and 1865...
also served Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, Long Melford
Long Melford
Long Melford is a large village and civil parish in the county of Suffolk, England. It is on Suffolk's border with Essex, which is marked by the River Stour, approximately from Colchester and from Bury St. Edmunds...
, Clare
Clare, Suffolk
Clare is a small town on the north bank of the River Stour in Suffolk, England.Clare is from Bury St Edmunds and from Sudbury. It lies in the 'South and Heart of Suffolk' . As a cloth town, it is one of Suffolk's 'threads'. Clare is the current holder of Village of the Year and has won the...
and Haverhill
Haverhill, Suffolk
Haverhill is an industrial market town and civil parish in the county of Suffolk, England, next to the borders of Essex and Cambridgeshire. It lies southeast of Cambridge and north of central London...
. The line is part of the Network Rail Strategic Route 7
Network Rail Route 7 (Great Eastern)
Strategic Route 7 - Great Eastern is the designation given by Network Rail to a grouping of railway lines in the East of England that encompasses the Great Eastern Main Line and its various branch lines...
, SRS 07.10 and is classified as a rural line.
History
The Stour Valley RailwayStour Valley Railway
The Stour Valley Railway is a partially closed railway line that ran between , near Cambridge and in Essex, England. The line opened in sections between 1849 and 1865...
opened on 9 August 1865 running from Cambridge via Shelford
Shelford
Shelford is a village in the Rushcliffe borough of Nottinghamshire. It is near Radcliffe on Trent. It has an old manor house Shelford is a village in the Rushcliffe borough of Nottinghamshire. It is near Radcliffe on Trent. It has an old manor house Shelford is a village in the Rushcliffe borough...
, Long Melford
Long Melford
Long Melford is a large village and civil parish in the county of Suffolk, England. It is on Suffolk's border with Essex, which is marked by the River Stour, approximately from Colchester and from Bury St. Edmunds...
, Clare
Clare, Suffolk
Clare is a small town on the north bank of the River Stour in Suffolk, England.Clare is from Bury St Edmunds and from Sudbury. It lies in the 'South and Heart of Suffolk' . As a cloth town, it is one of Suffolk's 'threads'. Clare is the current holder of Village of the Year and has won the...
and Haverhill
Haverhill, Suffolk
Haverhill is an industrial market town and civil parish in the county of Suffolk, England, next to the borders of Essex and Cambridgeshire. It lies southeast of Cambridge and north of central London...
to join the current line from Sudbury to Marks Tey. The Shelford to Sudbury section was closed on 6 March 1967 as part of the Beeching Axe
Beeching Axe
The Beeching Axe or the Beeching Cuts are informal names for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard...
.
In December 2006 the line was designated as a "Community Railway" by the Transport Minister, and is part of the Essex and South Suffolk Community Rail Partnership. The line is presently named after the painter Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough was an English portrait and landscape painter.-Suffolk:Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woolen goods. At the age of thirteen he impressed his father with his penciling skills so that he let...
who was born in Sudbury, and was previously named the Lovejoy
Lovejoy
Lovejoy is a TV series about the adventures of Lovejoy, a British antiques dealer and faker based in East Anglia, a less than scrupulous yet likeable rogue. The episodes were based on a series of picaresque novels by John Grant...
Line, after the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
television series filmed in the Sudbury area. All passenger services on the line are operated by National Express East Anglia, which runs an approximately hourly shuttle service seven days a week. The first and last trains of the day run from and to Colchester
Colchester railway station
Colchester or Colchester North is the main railway station for Colchester in Essex, England. It is on the former Great Eastern Railway main line from London Liverpool Street to Norwich and is a junction for the line to Walton-on-the-Naze and Clacton-on-Sea, which diverges southwards from the main...
, and one train each weekday morning runs to and from Colchester after the peak commuter services.
During July 2005 the line received around £3 million of investment, which saw around 5 miles (8 km) of old jointed track replaced with new continuous welded rail. August 2006 saw further investment, to replace around 6 miles (10 km) of track, leaving just the Chappel Viaduct and Lamarsh to Sudbury sections in need of modernisation. This work was completed in July 2007.
The Suffolk County Council
Suffolk County Council
Suffolk County Council is the administrative authority for the county of Suffolk, England. It is run by 72 elected county councillors representing 63 divisions...
Public Transport Strategy of February 2006 proposed the creation of an additional station for the line, at Great Cornard
Great Cornard
Great Cornard is a large village located just outside Sudbury, in Suffolk, England.-History:The area now called Great Cornard has been occupied since pre-history, with evidence of Palaeolithic, Bronze Age and Roman settlements in the parish. The village is accounted for in the Domesday Book as the...
, approximately 1 miles (2 km) from Sudbury station.
It was designated by the Department for Transport
Department for Transport
In the United Kingdom, the Department for Transport is the government department responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which are not devolved...
as a community rail
Community rail
In the United Kingdom, a community rail line is a local railway which is specially supported by local organisations. This support is usually through a Community Rail Partnerships – comprising both the railway operator, local councils and other community organisations – or sometimes by...
line in November 2006.
Official posters appeared at all stations on the line shortly before the Summer 2008 timetable came in to effect on Sunday 18 May, advising travellers that the 1922 and 2008 services from Sudbury would be request stop at the intermediate statons.
On 17 August 2010, the 17:31 Sudbury - Marks Tey collided with a slurry tanker near Little Cornard; this incident has launched an inquest into the safety of telephone-activated level-crossings all over Britain.
Notable Sights
There is an impressive viaductViaduct
A viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans. The term viaduct is derived from the Latin via for road and ducere to lead something. However, the Ancient Romans did not use that term per se; it is a modern derivation from an analogy with aqueduct. Like the Roman aqueducts, many early...
at Chappel
Chappel
Chappel is a village in Essex which sits on the River Colne. It is famous for its Victorian viaduct that crosses the Colne valley.- Name and history :...
, and the East Anglian Railway Museum
East Anglian Railway Museum
The East Anglian Railway Museum is located at Chappel and Wakes Colne railway station in Essex, which is situated on the former Great Eastern Railway branch line from Marks Tey to Sudbury...
is located alongside the station at Chappel & Wakes Colne.
Infrastructure
The line is single track for its whole length, has a loading gaugeLoading gauge
A loading gauge defines the maximum height and width for railway vehicles and their loads to ensure safe passage through bridges, tunnels and other structures...
of W6, and a line speed of 50 mph.
Unlike other branch lines in the area, such as the Braintree branch
Braintree Branch Line
The Braintree Branch Line is a branch line from Witham to Braintree in Essex, England.The line diverges from the Great Eastern Main Line at Witham. Passenger services are currently operated by National Express East Anglia...
, the Gainsborough Line is not electrified
Railway electrification in Great Britain
Railway electrification in Great Britain started towards of the 19th century. A great range of voltages have been used in the intervening period using both overhead lines and third rails, however the most common standard for mainline services is now 25 kV AC using overhead lines and the...
and so trains are currently formed of diesel multiple unit
Diesel multiple unit
A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple unit train consisting of multiple carriages powered by one or more on-board diesel engines. They may also be referred to as a railcar or railmotor, depending on country.-Design:...
s. Specifically, Class 156
British Rail Class 156
The British Rail Class 156 Super Sprinter is a diesel multiple-unit train . 114 of these units were built from 1987 to 1989 by Metro-Cammell at its Washwood Heath Works in Birmingham...
on weekdays and Class 153
British Rail Class 153
The British Rail Class 153 Super Sprinter is a single car diesel multiple unit converted from British Rail Class 155s.-Description:These units were originally built as two-car Class 155 units by British Leyland from 1987–88, but were converted by Hunslet-Barclay at Kilmarnock from 1991-92...
at the weekends.
External links
- Complete history of the branch line from 1849 Bures web site