Time Capsules - Old Photographs from the past

Possibly taken in the late 1950s as the DMU didn't exist much before 1957, I think. Southminster was the terminus of a branch from Woodham Ferrers on the main line from London to Colchester and Ipswich. Fambridge, Althorne and Burnham-on-Crouch were the intermediate stations

I had idly assumed the branch had closed in the Beeching era, but Marcel's comments above indicate that isn't the case. There appear to have been two reasons for keeping the line open: 1) Relatively easy commuting distance from London and 2) Bradwell nuclear power station to the north, which required the removal of nuclear flasks by rail from Southminster to Sellafield. The power station is now being de-commissioned. A recent photo on the Geograph site by Dr Neil Clifton shows the old station building and platform canopy together with an emu, viewed in the opposite direction. See: www.geograph.org.uk/photo/219787

Further correction: Woodham Ferrers was also on the branch, which actually began at Shenfield and Hutton on the main line and ran to Billericay then on to Wickford where another line headed off to Southend-on-Sea. From Wickford the Southminster branch ran to Battlesbridge and then at Woodham Ferrers there was a further junction, where a third route ran to Maldon. Here's a shot of the station at Woodham Ferrers in pre-grouping days:
pre-grouping.fotopic.net/p12896820.html

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