Bungay railway station was located on the now disused Waveney Valley Line which ran between Tivetshall and Beccles. The station was closed in 1953 and the buildings eventually demolished to make way for the A143 road. It was one of two stations in

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

on the line, which curved across the county boundary then back into

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

History

On 3 July 1851, the Waveney Valley Railway (WVR) was formed, with powers to build a railway line from on the

Eastern Union Railway The Eastern Union Railway (EUR) was an English railway company, at first built from Colchester to Ipswich; it opened in 1846. It was proposed when the earlier Eastern Counties Railway failed to make its promised line from Colchester to Norwich. T ...

(EUR) to Bungay; an extension to was authorised on 4 August 1853. The line was opened in stages: the first section, between Tivetshall and was opened on 1 December 1855; and the line reached Bungay on 2 November 1860. The final part of the line opened on 2 March 1863 when the line to Beccles opened and Bungay became a through station. From opening, the WVR was worked by the

Eastern Counties Railway The Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) was an English Rail transport, railway company incorporated in 1836 intended to link London with Ipswich via Colchester, and then extend to Norwich and Great Yarmouth, Yarmouth. Construction began in 1837 on t ...

(ECR), which had absorbed the EUR in 1854; but following a dispute, the WVR worked its own trains. The WVR was absorbed by 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 ...

(GER) in July 1863 - the GER had been formed in 1862 when the ECR amalgamated with several other railways. On 9 March 1863 the 4:50pm Bungay-Beccles train was derailed dragging its carriages for about 70 yards before running off the embankment. In August 1912 the line was temporarily closed between Bungay and Harleston as the River Waveney had flooded. The GER provided a number of its own buses to provide a replacement passenger service in the interim. On 1 January 1923, the GER amalgamated with several other railways to form the

London & North Eastern Railway London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major se ...

following the 1923 grouping. During World War II the station probably saw its busiest period of operation due to the proximity of a number of airbases. In 1948 following nationalisation of the railways the station became part of the

Eastern Region of British Railways The Eastern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948, whose operating area could be identified from the dark blue signs and colour schemes that adorned its station and other railway buildings. Together with the North Eastern Region ( ...

. In 1952 the line was badly affected by a number of gales in the area. A steam crane was bought in from Ipswich to assist with clearing the line. Passenger services were withdrawn in 1953 although a number of enthusiast specials traversed the line up until 1960. As it opened in stages the line closed in stages. The Bungay - Harleston section closed in late 1960 but freight between Bungay and Beccles continued until August 1964.

Facilities

The branch was mostly single track and Bungay was one of the locations where trains could cross. It had two platforms, one serving eastbound and the other westbound trains. A

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 located at the east end of the station opposite the goods yard. A new signal box was provided by the GER in 1891. The original station buildings were timber and lasted until the 1930s, when an improved brick structure was provided by the

. Pictures from 1922 showed that the buildings were looking dilapidated and this was an issue raised by the town reeve who suggested some of the buildings may have been the original contractors huts. The station had an adjoining goods yard with four sidings, a goods shed, a 30 cwt crane and end loading dock. Inward traffic consisted of house coal, household goods and construction materials whilst outwards the traffic was largely agricultural.

Passenger Services

The line was a rural line passing through sparsely populated areas. As a result, the train service was never particularly frequent. At opening there were four trains each way on a weekday with an additional service on Saturdays. Between 1910 and 1915 there were seven trains per day but the advent of World War 1 saw these cut back to six by 1917. Four of these worked through from Norwich, the other two from Tivetshall (the main line junction).

Locomotives

The line was lightly built and as a result lighter engines were employed on trains. Early services were in the hands of a 2-2-2T locomotive called ''Perseverance''. Photographic evidence shows the following classes of engine worked through Bungay station. *

GER Class Y14 The Great Eastern Railway (GER) Class Y14 is a class of 0-6-0 steam locomotive. The LNER classified them J15. The Class Y14 was designed by T.W. Worsdell for both freight and passenger duties - a veritable 'maid of all work'. Introduced in ...

- later LNER classification J15. 0-6-0 tender locomotive built by the GER *

GER Class T26 The GER Class T26 was a class of steam tender locomotives designed by James Holden for the Great Eastern Railway. At the 1923 grouping they passed to the London and North Eastern Railway, who classified them E4. Eighteen survived into British ...

- later LNER classification E4. 2-4-0 tender locomotive built by the GER *

GER Class M15 The GER Class M15 was a class of 160 steam locomotives designed by Thomas William Worsdell and built for the Great Eastern Railway between 1884 and 1909. The original (F4) class of locomotives were fitted with Joy valve gear which was notorious ...

- later LNER classification F4 2-4-2 tank engine built by the GER

References

External links

Bungay station on navigable 1946 O. S. map
{{coord, 52.4576, 1.42890, type:railwaystation_region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(TM330899), display=title Former Great Eastern Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1860 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1953 Disused railway stations in Suffolk Bungay