The Harwich Branch

This afternoon we visited “The Harwich Branch” with Dave Goodyear. We followed the branch along its entirety, stopping at most of the stations and halts and looking, in sequence, through the history of each one.

Our first major junction was at Manningtree. From here you could catch a train to London or, via Ely, to Liverpool, Manchester and the Midlands.  Typical locos on the branch, in steam days, were B1’s, K1’s and N7’s, the Class 105 dmu took over the local duties in 1960’s, followed by the two workhorses in BR days the Class 31 and 37 diesel locos.

Many of the stations along the route were of similar Victorian brick design and remained so until some needed modifying when electrification took place during the 1980’s. We looked at the two primary destinations on the line which were Harwich and Parkeston, although being very close to each other they both saw major traffic, each having ports and docks. They were served by both freight and passenger traffic, primarily for onward transit by sea. An extremely busy line in its heyday but its demise took place once the Port of Felixstowe opened for fast container freight services.

Dave also took us into the modern era, with photographs of the various Classes of diesel and electric traction using the line to date since the 1980’s.

A great historical presentation covering 150 years.

Dave Elsdon

Branch Secretary