13th May 2024: Cambridge Area Railways Part 3 by David Scudamore

This was our only evening meeting this year, enabled by the lighter evenings in May.

Branch Member David accompanied by his wife Rob, completed his three part tour of the Cambridge area which began before Covid struck.

He followed his familiar pattern of starting at Cambridge Station showing photographs, old and new, of the immediate surroundings of the station, sharing where he used to stand and watch the trains by the cattle market road. Apart from the station frontage, everything has changed in this area. As in previous talks he has taken us on photographic trips up and down the various lines, some now gone, radiating from Cambridge. This time he took us south down the GE’s line to Bishops Stortford and Liverpool St as far as Audley End, returning to Cambridge via the triangle formed by parts of the GE lines from Great Chesterford towards Newmarket and Marks Tey to Great Shelford. We then looked at the Kings Cross line as far as Shepreth, where there was an end-on connection to the GN. Finally David covered the section of the LNWR’s Varsity Line from Cambridge to Sandy, which has long gone, with intermediate stations closing in 1968. Despite plans to reopen this line as part of the proposed East West rail project, much of the original line in the Cambridge area will not be reinstated, being replaced by revised route serving new developments which is currently subject to much local opposition. To a Branch steeped in the LMS, it was interesting to follow the LNWR’s incursion into an area dominated by the GN and GE.

David’s own photographs were supplemented by others including some from the Tommy Tomalin collection, plus others from the past including old postcards.

It was again a wonderful evening looking at railways beyond our local area and this topic was especially enjoyed by those whose railway groundings were in LNER territory.

Richard Deacon