Elmswell railway station

The Ipswich and Bury Railway Company (I&BR), was formed to build a line from Ipswich to Bury St Edmunds. Its Act of 21 July 1845 authorised capital of £400,000 and it shared many shareholders and directors with the Eastern Union Railway (EUR) who were in the process of building their line from Colchester to Ipswich. The companies also shared the same head office location in Brook Street, Ipswich.

The proposed line was 26.5 miles long, with intermediate stations at Bramford, Claydon, Needham, Stowmarket, Haughley Road, Elmswell and Thurston.[2]

The ground breaking ceremony took place in Ipswich on 1 August 1845 where twelve local worthies (including the mayor of Ipswich, engineer Peter Bruff and John Chevallier Cobbold) each filled a wheelbarrow with soil.[3] Building the line was challenging with problems at Ipswich with tunnel construction and at Stowmarket where the local marsh swallowed up a lot of material with test probes finding the bog was 80 feet deep![4]

On 26 November 1846 the first test train ran to a temporary station at Bury St Edmunds with stops at most stations on the route with the inevitable lavish celebrations. The official opening followed on 7 December 1846 when a special train ran from Shoreditch (later Bishopsgate railway station) to Bury. The Board of Trade inspection took place on 15 December 1846 and the line opened for traffic on 24 December.[5]

The GER added a waiting room and some toilets on the up platform.

The Woolpit Brick Company operated on a site 1.25 miles south of Elmswell station. Initially a horse-worked narrow gauge tramway operated running along existing roads, to exchange sidings on the south side of the station. On 6 June 1920 a standard gauge line opened slightly to the east of the narrow gauge line on a purpose built alignment to the edge of Elmswell and thence via some street running to the station goods yard. The lease for this line was only 14 years and this duly terminated in 1915 after which the stock was auctioned on 23 September 1915 and the line lifted during 1916. The line operated three steam locomotives during its short life including a former Jersey Railways 2-4-0T called "Haro Haro".[6] (photo).

In 1911 a siding to a new bacon factory was opened.[7]

Following the 1923 grouping, Elmswell became a LNER station. During World War II the station acted as a railhead for RAF Great Ashfield.[8]

Following nationalisation in 1948 Elmswell became part of British Rail Eastern Region.

According to the Official Handbook of Stations the following classes of traffic were being handled at this station in 1956: G, P, F, H, C and there was a 6-ton crane. Beer & Sons and St Edmundsbury Co-op had private sidings.[9]

Goods traffic was to last another eight years with the goods yard closing on 28 December 1964.

The station became an unstaffed halt in 1967 with the introduction of pay train working. In 1974 the main station building was demolished and since then a bus shelter type arrangement has sufficed for passengers using the station.[10]

Upon sectorisation in 1982 Provincial (renamed Regional Railways in 1989) became responsible for all local passenger services.

In April 1994 Railtrack became responsible for the maintenance of the infrastructure. Railtrack was succeeded by Network Rail in 2002. Passenger services have been operated by the following franchises:

• April 1994 - December 1996 Operated as a non-privatised business unit under the InterCity name
• January 1997 - March 2004 Anglia Railways - owned by GB Railways but bought out by FirstGroup in 2003 [11][12]
• April 2004 - February 2012 National Express East Anglia[13][14]
• March 2013 – present Abellio Greater Anglia[15]

The buildings on the up platform were restored in 1989/90.[16]

Following the introduction of regular hourly services, passenger usage increased by more than 100% between 2005 and 2012.