Time Capsules
Long Melford Railway Station c1950s
Photo of what was Long Melford Railway Station circa 1950s in Suffolk, England. Long Melford station opened in 1865 as simply Melford but was renamed in 1884. It was situated on the Stour Valley Line but faced closing in 1967 as many other stations and lines.
Nowadays the building is in use as a private premises.
Waiting at one of the two platforms is a passenger train headed by steam locomotive number 62785, ready to depart... or just arriving (looking at the three gents waiting).
Photo © The Step Back Through Time Collection
Picture added on 27 December 2009
This picture is in the following groups
Step back through Time, trains and stations
Step back through Time, trains and stations
The locomotive is one of Holden's T26 mixed traffic 2-4-0s designed for the Great Eastern Railway and introduced in 1891. Classified as class E4 by the LNER, none survived in operation by the 1960s; 62785 was photographed stored at Stratford depot, London, in 1959
Added by Martin Bodman on 24 January 2010
The Stour Valley line, now also known as the Gainsborough Line, still runs from Colchester to Sudbury. Long Melford was the first stop beyond Sudbury; the line ran on to Bury St Edmunds. I remember travelling to Sudbury in 1963 and I have the impression that there were no services beyond the town then. Here is a more recent view of the present end of the line: www.geograph.org.uk/photo/997680
Added by Martin Bodman on 24 January 2010
England
62785 was an E4 Class 2-4-0 locomotive, designed by James Holden for the Great Eastern Railway and introduced in 1891 as the T26 Class. The design was based on Holden's existing Class T19 2-4-0 (later rebuilt as LNER D13 4-4-0). The large 7ft wheels on the T19 were replaced with smaller 5ft 8in wheels. The steam passages were also re-arranged in order to reduce the length of the steam exhaust passages. These modifications resulted in a locomotive which was much more lively than the T19s which were already gaining a reputation for being sluggish. A total of 100 T26s were built in ten batches between 1891 and 1902. As a successful mixed traffic locomotive, the T26s acquired the nickname of "Intermediates".
Eighteen E4s survived by January 1940, and due to a shortage of suitable locomotives with a light axle loading in East Anglia during wartime, all 18 continued in service until 1954.
It so happens that No. 62785 (shown here) was finally withdrawn in November 1959, but was preserved as a part of the National Collection. It is preserved as No. 490 in the Bressingham Steam & Gardens Museum, near Diss in Norfolk.