History
In about 1847 the Ipswich & Bury Railway had secured the rights to build the line from Ipswich to Woodbridge but works were delayed for financial reasons. The Ipswich & Bury Railway was absorbed by then Eastern Union Railway in 1847 which gathered a number of the smaller railway concerns together.
The Halesworth, Beccles & Haddiscoe Railway was incorporated in 1851 and the first section of the East Suffolk line from Beccles to Halesworth was constructed by Peto Brassey & Betts. The East Suffolk railway, which had been incorporated on 3 July 1854, took over the powers of the Halesworth, Beccles & Haddiscoe Railway and the route opened on the 4 December 1854. It continued north to Haddiscoe on what is now part of the Wherry Lines.
On the 1 June 1859 the line was opened as far south as Westerfield and Ipswich and north to Great Yarmouth. In 1862 the Great Eastern took over operation of the line. In 1877 the Felixstowe Branch opened. In 1885 an ambitious Midland Railway scheme would, had it of come to fruition seen Westerfield Junction linked to Chesterton Junction just north of Cambridge. Like so many schemes of the time it foundered and died a natural death.
During the 1880s the station served a factory belonging to the Westerfield Steam Brewery (which also dealt in coal and corn). Coal merchant, Thomas Moy was listed as operating in 1896 and 1900
On 25 September 1900 at 0845, GER Class Y14 0-6-0 locomotive no 522 which was then just a year old stopped at a signal on the Ipswich side of the level crossing awaiting a route to the Felixstowe branch. Shortly afterwards the boiler exploded killing driver John Barnard and his fireman William Macdonald both based at Ipswich engine shed. The boiler was thrown 40 yards forwards, over the level crossing and ended up on the down platform. Apparently the locomotive had a history of boiler problems although in the official report the Boiler Foreman at Ipswich Engine shed was blamed. The victims were buried in Ipswich cemetery and both their gravestones have a likeness of a Y14 0-6-0 carved onto them.
On 3 May 1902 Westerfield almost became a four way junction when a sod cutting ceremony for the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway was held adjacent to the north side of the goods yard The original plan was to link up with the Mid-Suffolk Railway at Debenham and a short section of this line was built at the Debenham end. It was never completed.
During this time it is known that excursion trains travelled from such places as the Framlingham Branch to Felixstowe and it is possible the locomotives would have run round the carriages in the station (rather than run to Ipswich) in order to access the branch. No scheduled services did this.
In 1923 the Great Eastern was merged into the London and North Eastern Railway. During World War II a number of engines were stored in the bay platforms but returned to use later in the war. These included three of the regular Felixstowe branch engines nos 6123, 6128 and 6130 (C14 4-4-2T).
In 1948 the railways were nationalised and British Railways took over operation of Westerfield Junction. In the 1960s the East Suffolk line was identified for closure but a vigorous local campaign saw it saved. It was reduced to a very basic railway in order to cut costs although some through services to London survived until the 1980s.
On 13 July 1964 the goods yard closed with the track in the bay platforms being lifted sometime later in the 1960s. In 1967 all booking offices in the area closed and all trains became operated by conductor guards. The late 1960s saw the steady growth of freight through Felixstowe Docks with Freightliner trains being seen increasingly at Westerfield.
In 1985 The layout was changed in connection with the introduction of Radio Electronic Token Block signalling. Trains heading towards Felixstowe now changed tracks west of the level crossing and worked through the up (Ipswich bound platform). Westerfield signal box remained as the Felixstowe branch was still signalled under the Absolute Block system. The signal box closed in 1999 and the Felixstowe branch was controlled by the Colchester Power Signal Box under the Track Circuit Block system of signalling. In the early 1990s the Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company buildings which had stood empty for many years were converted to a private residence.
In 1994 the railways were privatised. The ownership of the infrastructure passed to Railtrack (which later became Network Rail in 2002). The trains were initially operated by a business unit and the first franchise was awarded to Anglia Railways (owned by First Group). The second round of franchising in 2004 saw the One Railway franchise owned by National Express take over although this was renamed National Express East Anglia in 2008.
In 2004 a developer planning to develop land to the east of the Castle Hill area in Ipswich proposed a new station which would have seen the end of Westerfield Junction due to its close proximity. The plans came to nothing.
Read more about this topic: Westerfield Railway Station
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“No one can understand Paris and its history who does not understand that its fierceness is the balance and justification of its frivolity. It is called a city of pleasure; but it may also very specially be called a city of pain. The crown of roses is also a crown of thorns. Its people are too prone to hurt others, but quite ready also to hurt themselves. They are martyrs for religion, they are martyrs for irreligion; they are even martyrs for immorality.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“To care for the quarrels of the past, to identify oneself passionately with a cause that became, politically speaking, a losing cause with the birth of the modern world, is to experience a kind of straining against reality, a rebellious nonconformity that, again, is rare in America, where children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“The greatest horrors in the history of mankind are not due to the ambition of the Napoleons or the vengeance of the Agamemnons, but to the doctrinaire philosophers. The theories of the sentimentalist Rousseau inspired the integrity of the passionless Robespierre. The cold-blooded calculations of Karl Marx led to the judicial and business-like operations of the Cheka.”
—Aleister Crowley (1875–1947)