Wrabness railway station is on the Mayflower Line, a branch of the

Great Eastern Main Line The Great Eastern Main Line (GEML, sometimes referred to as the East Anglia Main Line) is a major railway line on the British railway system which connects Liverpool Street station in central London with destinations in east London and t ...

in the

East of England The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. This region was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics purposes from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire ...

, serving the village of

Wrabness Wrabness is a small village and civil parish near Manningtree, Essex, England. The village is located six miles (10 km) west of Harwich. Wrabness railway station is served by trains on the Mayflower Line. Wrabness had a population of appr ...

, Essex. It is down the line 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 ...

and is situated between to the west and station to the east. Its three-letter station code is WRB. The station is currently managed by

Abellio Greater Anglia Greater Anglia (legal name Abellio East Anglia Limited) is a train operating company in Great Britain owned as a joint venture by Abellio (transport company), Abellio, the international arm of the state-owned Dutch national rail operator Neder ...

, which also operates all trains serving the station.

History

The station opened in 1854. Platform 1 (London bound) and platform 2 (Harwich bound) have an operational length for four-coach trains. There were formerly

siding Siding may refer to: * Siding (construction), the outer covering or cladding of a house * Siding (rail) A siding, in rail terminology, is a low-speed track section distinct from a running line or through route such as a main line, branch l ...

s at the west (London) end of both the "up" and "down" lines. Those on the up side were used for local goods work, coal being one of the commodities handled. The sidings on the down side were extended during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

to the riverside to accommodate a large rail-mounted gun which was intended to protect the estuary. 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'' ...

controlling the section of line stood at the west end of the down platform but was no longer used after the electrification of the line in 1985. The box was purchased by local enthusiasts and donated to the

Colne Valley Railway The Colne Valley Railway is a heritage railway based at Castle Hedingham Station, near Halstead in Essex, England. The railway consists of a long running line, with a fully reconstructed station, signal box and railway yard. History The ra ...

at Castle Hedingham where it was re-commissioned and is operational today controlling a running round loop.

Services

the typical weekday off-peak service on the line is one train per hour in each direction, although some additional services run at peak times. Trains operate between and calling at all stations, although some are extended to or from or London Liverpool Street. There is also one direct train a day on Monday to Fridays from Wrabness to Ipswich (continuing on to Cambridge) during the morning peak, which is operated by a diesel unit.

References

Railway stations in Essex DfT Category F1 stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1854 Former Great Eastern Railway stations Greater Anglia franchise railway stations Tendring {{EastEngland-railstation-stub