The original road bridges carrying traffic accross
the Great Eastern
Railway's Ipswich - Westerfield - Felixstowe line built by Colonel
Tomline
(after whom a road between Foxhall Road and Derby Road is named) which
opened
in 1877 with its wondrously lofty viaduct where the line suddenly
leaves
the cuttings (as shown in the photographs), leaps the deep valley of
Spring
Road and plunges back into the cutting. Quite why every bridge has been
carefully numbered in white stencilled figures against a black panel is
of interest. Presumably gangers arriving to access the trackside were
directed
to the nearest numbered bridge to avoid confusion. The top picture is
taken
from Colchester Road, close to the end of Cemetery Lane (risking very
heavy
traffic!). The lower of the two pictures is of the Woodbridge Road
bridge
which lies close to the end of Belle Vue
Road.
Number 1084 is in between the two above in Belvedere
Road just before
it goes through the old cemeteries. All numbers seem to be painted on
the
side of the bridge on the Westerfield Junction side of the line.
Still to come: the bridge in Wellesley Road leading into Marlborough
Road
near Clifford Road School, the tiny
one-lane
bridge in Fuchsia Lane and those in Foxhall and Felixstowe Roads. Sadly
the bridge in Derby Road next to the station has recently been rebuilt
to
a higher specification to enable larger container trains through
(similarly
the Stoke Bridge tunnel had its trackbed lowered in 2004), so the
number
has been lost. The building of the tunnel by the Eastern Union Railway,
whose line originally terminated at the site of the original station
and
marshalling yard near Station Street, Croft Street and Little Station
Street
(off Wherstead Road) opened up the routes to Stowmarket, Bury St
Edmunds,
Peterborough, Norwich, Lowestoft and Felixstowe. The line to Felixstowe
transformed the small fishing village on the North Sea coast at the
mouth
of the Orwell and Stour rivers (population from the 1861 census: 673
persons)
into a successful seaside resort and later into a major port which
today
threatens to swallow up ever greater stretches of the natural
riverbanks
towards Trimley.
Once the new Ipswich Station was established at its present site in
Ranelagh
Road/Burrell Road the engineers had to navigate a route around the
majority
of a large, well established town to reach Felixstowe (apparently
Ipswich Corporation forbade Colonel Tomline from building a railway
through any part of the busy town). Striking out westward
(in the opposite direction to Felixstowe), the line travels out in a
wide
curve which continues past the main junction to Norwich, between London
Road/Crane Hill (site of an interesting
milepost)
and Hadleigh Road, then over Bramford Road and Norwich Road (site of
the
famous Ferodo sign!). Do rail bridges
over roads have numbers? Then under
Dale Hall Lane and Henley Road. Leaving the edges of Castle Hill the
line
is now heading north-east towards Lowestoft until it reaches the level
crossing
at Westerfield. The original station building - now a residence - is
tucked
away behind the present station. Westerfield junction, several miles
outside
the town, is the chance for the line to leave the Lowestoft branch to
whiplash
back towards north and east Ipswich. The first bridge on this stretch
is
at Tuddenham Road close to the former pet cemetery (presumably bridge
number 1082),
then Colchester Road near Northgate High School (1083), Belvedere Road
(1084),
Woodbridge Road (1085), over Spring Road, under Wellesley Road (1086),
Fuchsia
Lane (1087), Foxhall Road (1088), Derby Road (1089). The line then
travels
along behind houses parallel to Felixstowe Road to pass under it near
St
Augustine's Church (1090 - all these numbers speculative until we can
do
more research). Finally the line passes over Ransomes Way close to the
Warren
Heath Sainsbury's store and is finally on its West-sou'-west course to
Trimley
and Felixstowe. What a curious journey it is.
Reading
Cobb, Stephen: 'Ipswich to Felixstowe: 125 years on the line'.
Ipswich
Transport Musem, 2002.