The Waveney Valley line was a branch line running from in Norfolk to Beccles in Suffolk connecting the Great Eastern Main Line at Tivetshall with the East Suffolk line at . It provided services to Norwich, Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Ipswich and many other towns in Suffolk with additional services to London. It was named after the River Waveney which follows a similar route.
| Short Title: | Waveney Valley Railway Act 1851 |
| Type: | Act |
| Parliament: | Parliament of the United Kingdom |
| Year: | 1851 |
| Citation: | 14 & 15 Vict. c. lxvi |
| Royal Assent: | 3 July 1851 |
| Status: | repealed |
| Collapsed: | yes |
The line was authorised by the Waveney Valley Railway Act 1851 on 3 July 1851.[1] The line opened in stages, firstly from Tivetshall to Harleston on 1 December 1855, then to Bungay on 2 November 1860, and finally to Beccles. When the line was completed it was incorporated into the Great Eastern Railway. The line then became part of the LNER on 1 January 1923.
and stations were closed in 1866, only 11 years after the line opened.
Early services on the line were worked by the company's only locomotive named Perseverance. This was a 2-2-2T locomotive built by Sharp Stewart and Co (Manchester). It did not perform particularly well and was rebuilt by the GER in 1864 as a 2-4-0T. Withdrawal was in 1880/1 and the locomotive was broken up in November 1881.
Some old pictures show the following classes of engine that worked over the route:[2]
The line was closed to passenger services on 5 January 1953, with the last passenger train running from Tivetshall junction to Beccles, pulled by ex-LNER class F3 No. 67128.[3]
A Light Railway Order was obtained in November 1954, after which there were some special services run by railway enthusiasts.
From 1960 the line was split into sections – Tivetshall to Harleston and Beccles to Bungay.
The lines were finally closed from 19 April 1966 during the Beeching Axe and the track eventually removed. Some of the last wagon loads to leave Ditchingham were sand and gravel from Broome Heath, used in the construction of Hammersmith fly-over in west London.
In the early 1980s, many of the remaining old buildings, including stations and goods yards, were demolished to make way for a new road (the A143).
The line ran regular passenger and freight services daily, except for Sundays. This was a condition placed on the railway by landowners in the Starston area of Norfolk who had to give their consent before the line could be built.
Departing from Beccles there were stations at Geldeston, Ellingham, Ditchingham, Bungay, Earsham, Homersfield, Harleston, Pulham St. Mary, and Pulham Market before the line terminated at Tivetshall.
During World War I, however, troop trains were known to operate each day. By October 1915, trains had reached their peak of 8 trains per day, but the demands of the war reduced this to 6 trains per day in 1917.
During World War II, there was a large increase in traffic. This was due to the airfields and military establishments being built along the line. Bombs were stored on a bomb dump near Earsham Hall until, after the war, the unused bombs were taken away and disposed of; this continued until 1954.
By 1953, when passenger services ceased, services had remained unchanged for 36 years.
The following are rarely documented accidents that occurred on the Waveney Valley railway:
Beccles and Bungay Weekly News 9 March 1863[4]
Reports of what was probably the first accident on the Bungay/Beccles section happened on the 4:50 pm Bungay–Beccles train.
"When going over the bridge on the Bungay side of the factory, the engine lost the metals, dragging with it eleven tracks and two Passenger Cars for about seventy yards, when it ran off the embankment with some of the coaches."
"Bungay Station: Killed on the Railway" – (Unknown Date)
"Shocking Death at The Railway Station" – (Unknown Date)
The Bungay to Harleston section of the route now forms part of the main A143 road and was opened on 9 November 1983. Other sections of the route are now tracks and footpaths.
The line from Beccles station was partly converted to an industrial estate, reaching the river next to the aptly named Railway Score. The remains of the bridge over the River Waveney on the Norfolk side of the river are still visible. From the bridge, the trackbed is in overgrown condition and the ballast is still present in places. At Ditchingham, the former Silk Mill, later The Maltings served by the railway still survives following redevelopment in 2015 as the Waterside housing development.
Several stations do survive including:
The water tower from Bungay was saved and taken to the North Norfolk Railway and placed at Weybourne where it is the largest object from the line still in railway use.