Gainsborough Line

Gainsborough Line
File:Chappel Viaduct and Green.jpg The Chappel viaduct carries the line
Overview
Type	Community rail
System	National Rail
Locale	Essex and Suffolk
Operation
Owner	Network Rail
Operator(s)	Abellio Greater Anglia
Technical
Line length	11 miles 71 chains (19.1 km)
No. of tracks	1
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge

Gainsborough Line
Legend
miles-chains from Liverpool Street Stour Valley Railway 58-34 Sudbury Mill Tye 53-45 Bures Old Barn Road Colne Valley & Halstead Rly 50-18 Chappel & Wakes Colne Chappel viaduct 46-49 Marks Tey Marks Tey junction Great Eastern Main Line ← to London • to Norwich →

The Gainsborough Line is the current marketing name of the Sudbury Branch Line, a branch line off the Great Eastern Main Line in the east of England, that links Marks Tey in Essex with Sudbury in Suffolk. It is 11 miles 71 chains (19.1 km) in length and single-track throughout.

Prior to the Beeching cuts initiated in the 1960s, the line, then known as the Stour Valley Railway, continued beyond Sudbury to Shelford in Cambridgeshire. Today the line is part of the Network Rail Strategic Route 7, SRS 07.10, and is classified as a rural line. It is operated by Abellio Greater Anglia.

History

The Stour Valley Railway opened on 9 August 1865, linking Shelford near Cambridge with Marks Tey in Essex, with 13 intermediate stations along the line.

The section between Shelford and Sudbury was closed on 6 March 1967 following the Beeching cuts, leaving Bures and Chappel & Wakes Colne as the only stops between the termini.

In 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. Further investment was made in 2006 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 2007.

In 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 current name of the line commemorates the painter Thomas Gainsborough, who was born in Sudbury; the previous name was the Lovejoy Line, after the television series Lovejoy, which was filmed in the Sudbury area.

All passenger services on the line are currently operated by Abellio Greater Anglia, which runs an hourly service seven days a week, with frequency increasing slightly during peak hours. One train each day is extended to or from Colchester.

Notable sights

The line runs across the Chappel viaduct, which has 30 arches each with a 35 ft span with a maximum height of 75 ft and was the longest viaduct on the Great Eastern Railway.

The East Anglian Railway Museum is located alongside the station at Chappel & Wakes Colne.

Infrastructure

The line is single track throughout, has a loading gauge of W6, and a maximum speed of 50 mph. Unlike other branches in the area, such as the Braintree Branch Line and Mayflower Line to Harwich Town, the Gainsborough Line is not electrified and so trains are formed of Class 153 and Class 156 diesel units.

Accidents and incidents

• On 12 July 1887 one person was killed at Bures when part of a runaway train collided with a crossing gate.
• On 27 January 2006 at least four passengers were slightly injured when a Class 156 train ran into the buffer stop at Sudbury. The 6:05 pm service from Marks Tey was travelling at a speed at the time of the collision of approximately six miles per hour. An investigation determined that the driver failed to apply the brakes in a "timely and appropriate manner".
• On 17 August 2010 the Little Cornard derailment occurred when a Class 156 unit collided with a road vehicle on a level crossing at Little Cornard.

External links

• Complete history of the branch line from 1849 Bures web site