In Cornwall, typing up the last few days rides. So here is the latest which was East Anglia.
Day 19 East Anglia
So up very early to prepare to wipe East Anglia off my map. So to Paddington for the Circle line to Kings Cross. Experience means that I know there is a long walk around to the Circle platforms for the direct run to KX. I am hoping no delays along the line as it is rush hour but I get to the station with 18 minutes to spare. Along with many others I wait for the information screens to tell us what platform the train is due to leave. Its 9 and not 3 that RRT tells us. So we walk onto the platform and in trundles the train and drops its passengers from Royston. So the 07:44 to Kings Lynn is now ready to leave as it does on time. Im sitting in the middle first. First stop is Cambridge is the first call and we are 2L but have time to make up for the split and the remaining six stops to Lings Lynn. The line that is new to me is Ely- Kings Lynn. We depart Cambridge on time at 08:38 and I notice that the fields at Waterbeach were very frosty and that the platform was also very icy. The first time Ive noticed frost since I arrived in the UK on the 6th January. At the approaches to Ely there is a wonderful view of the cathedral which is even better than the view of Lincoln cathedral. We slow down out of Ely for the single line junction at Ely North to let a London bound train to pass into the station and I get a glimpse of the Ely avoiding line and the branches east and west which I have already covered and now I move northwards onto my new line to Kings Lynn.
Flat isnt it Norfolk! Between Littleport and Downham I notices fields with hundreds of swans, and I mean hundreds of them, all seemingly happy to be on land. At Downham Market station the buildings are **** but on the London side of the station there was a ticket office and a pub/café called the Railway Arms and a signal box. At Watlingham the car park was about half full and no one got on or off the train and there was a signal box. Frost was covering all the fields to Kings Lynn.
At Kings Lynn Station you can see that the station is immaculately kept. There is a good restaurant/café. I had a sausage sandwich with mayonnaise and a coffee as a late breakfast. They were selling Cornish pasties which werent. As a full blooded Cornishman I know that a Cornish pasty is a protected species these days had has to be made in Cornwall of Cornish grown and produced ingredients. I hadnt the heart to point out to them that they were breaking the law and as I type this I taking a bite out of my Welsh Stilton
..ooops! A wander around the streets by the station for a few minutes and then back on the train for the 09:45 GA service back towards Kings Cross. I noticed that Magdalen Road is now called Watlington on both sides of the road now but the signal box is still called Magdalen Road. At Ely, a quick walk across the platform for the GA 09:50 ex Peterborough to Ipswich at 10:32 which leaves exactly to time. On this service my new line is from Ely Dock Junction to Chippenham Junction which is in Suffolk and nor Wiltshire Im pleased to find out. There is a delay outside of Ipswich because we are waiting for a platform to become available, so I keep my eyes open for any passing train to leave the station but as it turns out The Cambridge-Ipswich has failed and is being shunted out of Platform 4. So the passing freight to the left of the train has nothing to do with it, but another train ex Lowestoft gets a run into the station and we arrive in Ipswich 6L. The connection to Manningtree is over the bridge on Platform 2. The 11:43 also is 6L when we depart and the train announcer says something over the speaker system that is totally unintelligible. First Class in both coaches are full but its only one stop. We arrive still 6L and there is a quick walk down the platform to connect to the 12:00 to Harwich a brand new branch for me in dull weather for me to bounce up and down.
The first noticeable item on the landscape is at Mistley where there is a remarkable chimney announcing it is the property of the EDME MALT EXTRACTION WORKS.
Wrabness is the next station down the river with some nice views across to the other bank. The station is somewhat dainty. No Passenger movement Harwich International is next, Again, Riverside and seaside views and the ferry port and docks. Lots of freight sidings with a lot of ballast wagons. The station is what youd expect for a ferry terminal but totally empty. So to Dovercourt. Lots of warehouses, portacabins and emptiness along the way to a few houses and a station which is just a platform with a large shelter. Then to Harwich Town which is a station that has obviously seen much better days.
So the return to Manningtree on the 12:28 and obvious reason for it to be late. A couple of locals get off the train at Dovercourt; At International 2 more get off the train and the hoards trying to board the train number 7. One woman was waiting at Wrabness and at Mistley in spite of the very large Welcome sign only one man was prepared to leave the place on this train, and so back to Manningtree for the ride back down to Colchester where Ill scout for lunch. So the train of choice is the 12:00 ex Norwich and it is 3L in Manningtree and leaves at 12:56.
Well what a waste of time Colchester turned out to be. There was nothing around the station area worth taking in for a half and a pub lunch. So a coffee at the station and wait for the 13:56 to Walton-on the-Naze via Colchester Town. Now here are two lines Ive never covered before. Certainly back in the mid to late seventies I did a day trip to Clacton but I never covered the Town branch or the Walton line so today is the day! Its a slow ride into Town station and a huge diversionary half circle of a turn to get there. Approaching the station we let out a returning service back to the main line and slink into the Town station. To be honest I think it would be quicker to walk.
At the Town station a number of students get on the train and we pull out, again slowly and we are hardly out of the triangle that we are in Hythe. Again Im thinking that it would be quicker to walk.
Withenhoe has old buildings on one side of the station, all boarded up and sadly out of use. The same at Alresford and at Bentley, the next stop though, there is some work being done on the footbridge. At Weeley there is nothing but the same old boarded up old station buildings and very basic shelters. At Thorpe-le-Soken (Please change for Clacton) we have to wait for the following faster Clacton service which misses out the Town branch and the intermediate stations and leaves before us. Our next station is Kirby Cross which is right against a housing area and then Frinton-on-Sea which has a single platform with a tidy but disused shelter on one side of the station and what seems like function able but locked premises on the other working side of the station.
Walton-on-the-Naze looks like a typical Essex seaside resort closed for the winter and is sitting there waiting for the summer to come and bring with it the East End day trippers. So back to Colchester, this time changing at Thorpe for the faster Clacton train and to connect to the 15:43 service calling at Marks Tey, for a connection to my final branch to Sudbury and back, finally clearing up East Anglia. So again a quick hop over the bridge to the Sudbury platform whilst waiting for the connecting train from London, and the crew had to wake up a deeply inebriated man, fast asleep and apparently travelling onto Colchester. I have to say that the crew handled the situation really well, as no one would have any idea what may have happened when they woke him up. Fortunately he wasnt violent at all and the crew were able to get him onto the Colchester bound train.
So my final branch of the day and departure was prompt. At Chapel and Wakes there is a sort of museum with quite a few carriages and a small but decent signal box. Burres station is a basically a single platform with a small wooden shelter with a display of the history of the station. Sudbury is a single platform; an end of the line halt with just enough space for the two carriage train to stop at before heading back to Marks Tey, which is what I did after a couple of photos to prove Id been there. So we left at 16:32 to connect to Liverpool Street at 16:59, on the 16:53 ex Colchester. My day day done.
