IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Claremont Heights, COLCHESTER, CO1 1ZX

Entering Colchester railway station

View eastward from the main Up platform: nearby are Class 47s 47564/73 and Class O3 03179.

This station used to be reputed to have the longest platform in the UK.

A train from the Clacton branch arrives at Colchester on route to London. The units of this type were built specifically for the Clacton and Walton services and were made up of either 2 or 4 coaches allowing the formation of 10 coach sets. All are now retired. The buffers in the foreground are there to slow and stop any trains that accidentally overrun the platform loop. The cross bracings are bolted to the rails and the flat bars between them are designed to collapse like accordion bellows with friction helping to halt the train.

The station is located just left of centre. Beyond, as you follow the railway along to the west, Witham and ultimately London, are the carriage sidings and depot. On the left of the picture are the roundabouts on the A133 that flank either side of the railway bridge.The road that curves away and leaves the photo on the lower right is the B1508. The river on the upper left is the Colne. Apologies for the odd angle!

Looking east from the eastbound platform.

47472 runs into the station with a Norwich bound express on a cool but bright November day. Electrification was subsequently extended to Norwich and these trains are now operated by electric locos in push-pull train formations.

90042 brings a westbound freightliner train into Colchester station. Freightliner trains are very common on this route travelling from Felixstowe. Passengers wait on the platform with their buckets and spades for the train to Clacton-on-Sea.

Looking at the Easterling train from Norwich to London Liverpool street via the East Suffolk line. The train is hauled by 70013 Oliver Cromwell, a Britannia class locomotive built at Crewe works in 1951 and delivered new (like some of the other Britannias) to Norwich Depot (32A). The class was built by British railways as a mixed traffic locomotive capable of Passenger and freight duties, however in the East it was mainly passenger traffic. The class was designed by Robert Riddles and had many ideas from all the former regions (GWR,SR,LMS and LNER). They were very popular with Eastern drivers although some complained of draughty cabs. Bill Harvey who is famous for his time at Doncaster works and the Norwich shed master liked the class very much (Bill Harvey is also famous for helping to save the J15 and B12 at the NNR). The locomotives were mainly employed on the Norwich to London trains via the Great Eastern mainline (replacing older designs like the B12s and B1s). British railways gave these trains names like 'the Norfolkman', the 'Broadsman' was a London to Sheringham train, also the 'East Anglian'. There was also the 'Easterling' this train ran from Yarmouth South town down the East Suffolk line (this part has been lifted) to Beccles where the second half of the train came from Lowestoft (hauled by a smaller engine). The train was joined and ran to Ipswich and London. The train was hauled by the Britannias and the B1s. The locomotive on this modern rerun is 70013 which was allocated to Norwich, it often ran the Norfolkman and the Easterling. This tour had to run diesel from Norwich to Lowestoft then detach the diesel and run steam to London. The train wouldn't have done this in the day, Beccles to Yarmouth has been dismantled. The lineside was very busy as it has been many years (must be the late 1950s) since the class has been on this line. There has been a B1 (61264) and Tangemere (34067) on the line this century but the last steam was 2006. 70013 is also famous for being in charge of the last steam train to run under BR in August 1968. After that tour the locomotive steamed to Norwich and then Diss to stay at Bressingham steam museum for 40 years. In 2004 'Steam Railway' magazine launched a campaign to get the locomotive steaming for the 40th Anniversary (they had tried before but with opposition from Bressingham). The magazine and its readers raised part of the money for restoration and it was started in 2004. The rest came from the National railway museum who owns the locomotive. The first steaming was on the Great Central railway then the locomotive's debut mainline tour was the 15 Guinea special in August 2008. In September that year the locomotive re-ran the 'Norfolkman' in a very fast time. It has been in ticket (boiler) for about a year now so has approx another 6 years on the mainline and 3 on preserved lines. Another Britannia to Survive is 70000 'Britannia' this was the first of the class and the first of 999 locomotives BR would build to its own designs. It was also a Norwich engine so done many of the duties described above. It is owned by locomotive collector Jeremy Hoskins and is under restoration for a return to the mainline this year. So we may be able to see two Britannias at Norwich one day.