Forgotten Railways : Volume 7 - East Anglia

The Great Eastern Railway scene was one of great contrasts with, on the one hand, the world's most intensive steam suburban service in the London suburbs and, on the other, branch and cross-country trains running through some of England's most sparsely-populated agricultural territory, many of which survived until the last 0 years. There were such delightful light railways as the Kelvedon & Tollesbury, the Mid-Suffolk, the Coine Valley & Halstead, and the narrow gauge Southwold Railway, and a surprisingly complex tangle of cross-country through routes, which meant that few places in East Anglia were far from a station. In North Norfolk there was competition from the Midland & Great Northern at such places as Cromer, Great Yarmouth and Norwich, and for coastal holiday traffic between Norfolk and the Midlands, with long corridor express trains hauled by elderly 4-4-0s or 0-6-0s competing for the limited capacity of the largely single track M&GN main line. In complete contrast was the typical Great Eastern country train, even in the 1950s usually comprising two, perhaps three, sometimes gaslit, GA coaches, hauled by a 60 year old 0-6-0 or 2-4-0, which astonishingly managed to survive to dieselisation. Not all the country lines have gone, for some have been developed to take on a new lease of life, but most are now only memories. R.S. Joby delves into the railway past to unearth much of the atmosphere and social impact of opening and closure, not only of 'Sweedie', as the Great Eastern was often known, but of all lines in East Anglia, including some little-known industrial and agricultural freight branches now becoming lost in the mists of time. A gazetteer summarises the location of visible remains and current uses.