22-639: The East Anglian Railway Museum is a museum located at Chappel and Wakes Colne railway station in Essex , England, which is situated on the former Great Eastern Railway branch line from Marks Tey to Sudbury . Services on the Sudbury Branch Line are operated by Abellio Greater Anglia . The museum has a wide collection of locomotives and rolling stock, some of which are fully restored, three are converted into Thomas, Percy and Toby replicas while others are undergoing repair and restoration. The Restoration Shed
44-430: A 30-foot span and standing 75 feet above the valley floor. Built at a cost of £32,000 it contains seven million bricks. The 1851 census records that a foreman bricklayer and several labourers were living in huts adjacent to the viaduct. The vast majority of the bricks had been manufactured on-site using local clay. The typical off-peak service is one train per hour in each direction, with frequency increased slightly during
66-469: A 35-foot (11 m) span, with a maximum height of 75 feet (23 m), and was the longest viaduct on the Great Eastern Railway . The East Anglian Railway Museum is located alongside the station at Chappel & Wakes Colne . The line is single track throughout, has a loading gauge of W6, and a maximum speed of 50 miles per hour (80 km/h). Unlike other branches in the area, such as
88-423: A Registered Museum in 1995. Since 2005, the museum has had a greater emphasis on interpretation and display facilities, a large variety of events take place each year to raise funds to support the museum's activities. The museum has a collection of industrial steam locomotives, in various states of repair. The museum has a collection of industrial diesel locomotives. Two Class 101 DMU cars are in operation at
110-485: A workshop being set up in the goods shed to enable maintenance and restoration work to be undertaken on the rolling stock. The Stour Valley Railway Preservation Society was renamed to The East Anglian Railway Museum in 1986 to confirm its focus on representing railway history of the Eastern Counties rather than just operating trains. The museum gained charitable status in 1991 (Registered Charity No. 1001579) and became
132-485: Is shown working in Poplar as an engine driver in the 1871 census . The 1871 census records 29-year-old Alfred H. Bryant as the resident station-master. The 1881 census shows 45-year-old George William Grand as the station-master, a position he held until at least 1891. Sitting just to the south of the station is the outstanding feature on the line, the 1,066-foot (325 m) long viaduct consisting of 32 arches each having
154-535: Is situated between Marks Tey and Bures . Its three-letter station code is CWC. Platform 1 has an operational length for five-coach trains. Platforms 2 and 3 are used by the East Anglian Railway Museum . The station is currently operated by Greater Anglia , who also operate all trains serving it, as part of the East Anglia franchise . It has one platform as the line is single-track. It is also home to
176-616: Is the current marketing name of the Sudbury branch line , a railway branch line off the Great Eastern Main Line in the east of England , that links Marks Tey in Essex with Sudbury in Suffolk . It is 11 miles 53 chains (18.77 km) in length and single-track throughout. The line's Engineer's Line Reference is SUD. Prior to the Beeching cuts initiated in the 1960s,
198-558: The East Anglian Railway Museum which has the former London-bound platform, a running line, the original station buildings and all of the land and facilities on the east side of the line. Just to the south of the station the line runs over the Chappel viaduct . Chappel & Wakes Colne is unstaffed but has a self-service ticket machine. The platform buildings, on the station's west side, are restored to 1950s style but are part of
220-587: The Marks Tey to Sudbury Line until 1993 when all 1st generation units were withdrawn in East Anglia and were transferred to Manchester, both withdrawn from service in 2001, then stored at MOD Shoeburyness before being purchased in 2003. They represented the Class 101 DMU class at Railcar50. The unit is mainly used on Day Out with Thomas Events where it runs as Daisy The Diesel Multiple Unit. British Rail Class 306 unit 017
242-538: The Stour Valley Railway Preservation Society on 24 September 1968. The SVRPS was established at Chappel & Wakes Colne Station in December 1969 after a lease was obtained from British Rail to use the vacant goods yard and railway buildings, including the station building. The first public steam day took place three months later. The goods shed and station buildings were quickly restored; with
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#1732851396630264-517: The band played to around 150 people in a goods shed. This concert was their first since 2001 and the first show of their 2009 mini-tour, which was followed by the band headlining at the Glastonbury Festival and performing two concerts in Hyde Park . In November 2009, a plaque was erected on the East Anglian Railway Museum by PRS for Music . The Heritage Award was a celebration of Blur and
286-634: The line, then known as the Stour Valley Railway , continued beyond Sudbury to Shelford in Cambridgeshire. Today the line is part of the Network Rail Strategic Route 7 , SRS 07.10, and is classified as a rural line. As of December 2016 the stations and all trains serving them are operated by Greater Anglia . The typical service frequency is one train per hour in each direction, with a timetabled journey time between one terminus and
308-606: The location of their first live performance. Chappel and Wakes Colne railway station Chappel & Wakes Colne railway station is on the Gainsborough Line , a branch to Sudbury off the Great Eastern Main Line , in the East of England , serving the village of Wakes Colne and the neighbouring Chappel . It is 3 miles 49 chains (5.81 km) down the line from Marks Tey and 50 miles 18 chains (80.83 km) measured from London Liverpool Street . It
330-419: The museum, and entered from ground-floor level. The station opened with the opening of the line from Marks Tey to Sudbury as part of the Stour Valley Railway on 2 July 1849, with the name Chappel ; it was renamed Chappel and Wakes Colne on 1 October 1914. The 1861 census shows Samuel Hamblin as the resident station-master. He appears to have fallen foul of the railway authorities at some stage as he
352-604: The museum. The units are owned by Diesel Unit Preservation Associates Ltd. DUPA own one other Class 101 unit (E51505 at Ecclesbourne Valley Railway) and two Class 108 units (E50599 at Ecclesbourne Valley Railway and M56223 at Llangollen Railway). Car number E56358 is painted in BR Blue with full yellow ends while E51213 is painted in BR Blue Grey with full yellow ends. Both cars have had their original pattern tungsten lighting reinstated. No. E56358 and No. E51213 were regular performers on
374-606: The other of 19 minutes. The Stour Valley Railway opened on 9 August 1865, linking Shelford near Cambridge with Marks Tey in Essex, with 13 intermediate stations along the line. The section between Shelford and Sudbury was closed on 6 March 1967 following the Beeching cuts , leaving Bures and Chappel & Wakes Colne as the only stops between the termini. In 2005 the line received around £3 million of investment, which saw around 5 miles (8 km) of old jointed track replaced with new continuous welded rail. Further investment
396-490: The peak. The last train of the day continues to Colchester. This station was used as a filming location in two scenes for the 2013 film The Numbers Station , starring John Cusack . The Britpop band Blur played their first gig in the goods sheds of the station in the summer of 1989. 51°55′34″N 0°45′32″E / 51.926°N 0.759°E / 51.926; 0.759 Gainsborough Line Miles from London Liverpool Street The Gainsborough line
418-528: Was born in Sudbury; the previous name was the Lovejoy line, after the television series Lovejoy , which was filmed in the Sudbury area. All passenger services on the line are currently operated by Greater Anglia , which runs an hourly service in each direction. The last departure from Sudbury at the end of each day is extended to Colchester . The line runs across the Chappel viaduct , which has 30 arches each with
440-591: Was built in 1983–4, before which most work had to take place in the Goods Shed or in the open. On event days, steam or diesel train rides are operated over a short demonstration track. The museum hosts two annual events: the Winter Beer Festival held in late February / early March (timing depends on UK school holidays), and the Summer Beer Festival held each September. The museum was originally formed as
462-432: Was made in 2006 to replace around 6 miles (10 km) of track, leaving just the Chappel viaduct and Lamarsh to Sudbury sections in need of modernisation. This work was completed in 2007. In 2006 the line was designated as a community railway by the transport minister and is part of the Essex and South Suffolk Community Rail Partnership. The current name of the line commemorates the painter Thomas Gainsborough , who
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#1732851396630484-538: Was transferred to the museum in mid-2011 for a four-year loan period from the National Railway Museum. The unit left the museum in October 2018. In 2021, the museum acquired a driving vehicle from British Rail Class 317 unit 317345. It was donated by Angel Trains . On 13 June 2009, alternative rock band Blur performed a concert at the museum, where they had performed their first concert in 1988. As in 1988,
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