Time Capsules - Old Photographs from the past

I think it is just arriving, since the last coach appears to be beyond the end of the platform.
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It so happens that No. 62785 (shown here) was finally withdrawn in November 1959, but was preserved as a part of the National Collection.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.

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

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

Here's an evocative piece featuring 62785 at Shelford, further along the line to Cambridge:

'It was an early November evening in 1953. The oil lamps of Shelford station glimmered dismally in the mist which enfolded the railway. A mellow whistle in the distance heralded the approach of the tea-time "all stations" from Colchester to Cambridge via Sudbury. The level crossing gates clattered open, an unseen signal wire squealed and presently there loomed quietly out of the darkness Class "E4" 2-4-0 No. 62785 hauling three Great Eastern coaches. Her aged driver peered out of the open cab, sharply silhouetted in the glare from the firebox, and I had an uncanny feeling it was 1903, not 1953.'
From: P J Lynch, Three snapshots of yesterday, The Railway Magazine, Vol XI, No 120, September 1958, 480

The line to Bury St.Edmunds ran through Lavenham Cockfield and Welnetham across the spine of the country and the gradients were steeper than most. thus it's nickname among the drivers and guards was "over the alps".

The line between Sudbury and Long Melford was open to passengers untill 1967,and a fair amount of freight to Cambridge. after closure the track was removed in the early 70's but station remained intact well in to the late 80's. if this line had only been moth-balled,or not closed at all,it now would be very busy with passengers,as the line to Sudbury is now, but also freight to Cambridge and beyond,such a waste of infrastucture.

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