Derby Road station, Ipswich geograph-3408502-by-Ben-Brooksbank

Derby Road railway station (also known as Derby Road (Ipswich)) is on the Felixstowe Branch Line in the east of England, serving the Rose Hill area and southern area of

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

on the eastern side of the town of

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

, Suffolk. It is down the line from station and measured from

London Liverpool Street Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the ward of Bishopsgate Without. It is the t ...

; It is situated between and and is managed by Greater Anglia, which also operates all passenger trains that call. The station was opened by the Felixstowe Railway & Pier Company in 1877 and takes its name from the street on which it is located in Ipswich. It used to be a popular station for people travelling from the eastern side of Ipswich to the seaside at Felixstowe due to its connection to the local tram system.

History

The

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...

for the Felixstowe Railway and Pier was granted on 19 July 1875. It was soon built and opened, along with the station at "Derby Road (Ipswich)", on 1 May 1877. The ''Suffolk Chronicle'' described its location as "the most inconvenient and out-of-the way spot which could have been selected" and during the line's pre-opening inspection by the

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, the mayor of Ipswich unsuccessfully made representations for an additional station a half-mile to the north between Spring Road and Woodbridge Road. On 1 September 1879 the

Great Eastern Railway The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...

took over operation of the line, although the original Felixstowe company retained ownership until 5 July 1887, when it sold the railway to the GER. In October 1879 the "Ipswich" suffix was dropped from the station name and some trains now continued beyond Westerfield to the main Ipswich station. This allowed better connections with trains on the main line, but that station, like Derby Road, was outside the commercial centre of the town. Ipswich Tramway Company Horsecar No

People living on the eastern side of the town generally preferred to use Derby Road when travelling to Felixstowe and the station could be very busy on sunny weekends with day trippers to and . They could reach the station on the Ipswich Tramway which terminated outside the entrance. Consequently, many trains from Felixstowe turned around here instead of continuing to Ipswich.Derby Road is from Ipswich station by train, but only across the town as the crow flies. The station was rebuilt with a second platform in 1891. An accelerated diesel-powered service was introduced to the branch on 15 June 1959. A station at was closed, but the journey time from Ipswich to Felixstowe Town was reduced from 35 to 24 minutes which allowed a

diesel multiple unit A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...

to work there and back within one hour. In 1967 the branch was converted to "Pay Train" operation, with all fares being collected by the guard so that no staff were needed at the stations other than a signalman. By the end of that year, passenger trains no longer continued beyond Felixstowe Town but that part of the line was retained for a few freight services to Felixstowe docks, which had just started to handle shipping containers. By 1986 there were 12 to 13 container trains passing through Derby Road in each direction to and from Felixstowe. These lengthy trains could not pass at Derby Road as the loop was too short, and the large number of these trains was causing disruption to the passenger service which was running less frequently than in the past. To resolve these issues the loop was extended in 1999. At the same time the

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

was closed and control of the line transferred to Colchester Panel Signal Box. The Derby Road bridge over the railway was rebuilt in 2003 to take the higher containers from Felixstowe docks.

Description

When the station opened it had a single platform on the north side of the line (despite the town centre being on the other side). Sidings on both side of the line were accessed from the Felixstowe-end of the station; a two-arch bridge carried the road over the line at the other end. A

passing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...

was added in 1891 which allowed another platform to be added on the south side of the line where a

was situated. More sidings were added over the years, including ones serving coal merchants and a scrap yard. Today both platforms are still in use. The station offices on the eastbound platform are still standing but unused; on the westbound platform there is a waiting shelter.

Services

Derby Road - Greater Anglia 153335 passing Freightliner 66538 and container train

When the railway opened in 1877 there were six trains to and from Felixstowe and four to and from Westerfield. By 1939 this had increased to 20 Felixstowe services, most of which continued through to Ipswich. In 1973 this had been reduced to just 13 trains each way, all of which now ran through to Ipswich. the typical Monday-Saturday off-peak service at Derby Road is as follows: The line also carries substantial freight traffic to and from the

port of Felixstowe The Port of Felixstowe, in Felixstowe, Suffolk, is the United Kingdom's busiest container port, dealing with 48% of Britain's containerised trade. In 2017, it was ranked as 43rd busiest container port in the world and 8th in Europe, with a han ...

operated by Freightliner,

DB Cargo DB Cargo (previously known as Railion and DB Schenker Rail) is an international transport and logistics company. It is responsible for all of the rail freight transport activities of the German railway company Deutsche Bahn (the DB Group) both ...

and

GB Railfreight GB Railfreight (GBRf) is a rail freight company in the United Kingdom. As of 2022, it is owned by the global investment company Infracapital. GB Railfreight was established in April 1999 as the rail freight operating subsidiary of the train o ...

but there are no sidings nowadays at Derby Road.

References

{{Railway stations served by Abellio Greater Anglia Railway stations in Suffolk DfT Category F2 stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1877 Former Great Eastern Railway stations Greater Anglia franchise railway stations