page_title: Westerfield railway station
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Westerfield railway station / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Westerfield junction and signalbox 1979
context_page_description: Westerfield railway station is on a branch line off the Great Eastern Main Line, in the East of England, serving the village of Westerfield, Suffolk. It is 3 miles 41 chains down the line from Ipswich and 72 miles 25 chains measured from London Liverpool Street. It is situated at a junction of the Felixstowe Branch Line to Felixstowe and the East Suffolk Line to Lowestoft. Its three-letter station code is WFI.
  The station was opened in 1859 and is located on the south side of the small village of Westerfield. Patronage has never been high and it may be the fact that its location as a junction of two branches has been partly responsible for keeping it open. Notwithstanding its low usage, a report commissioned by Suffolk County Council reported that 25,384 people lived in the catchment area for the station.
  Westerfield station is currently managed by Greater Anglia, which also operates all trains serving the station. Services are typically formed of Class 755 trains. The Felixstowe line sees an hourly shuttle service to Ipswich and there is an hourly service to and from Lowestoft which was introduced in 2012 following the completion of a passing loop at Beccles.
context_section_description: In about 1847, the Ipswich & Bury Railway had secured the rights to build a line from Ipswich to Woodbridge but construction was delayed for financial reasons. The Ipswich & Bury Railway was absorbed by the Eastern Union Railway in 1847, which gathered a number of the smaller railway concerns together.
  The Halesworth, Beccles & Haddiscoe Railway was incorporated in 1851 and the first section of the East Suffolk Line from Beccles to Halesworth was constructed by Peto Brassey & Betts. The East Suffolk Railway, which had been incorporated on 3 July 1854, took over the powers of the Halesworth, Beccles & Haddiscoe Railway and the route opened on 4 December 1854. It continued north to Haddiscoe on what is now part of the Wherry Lines.
  On 1 June 1859 the line was opened as far south as Westerfield and Ipswich and north to Yarmouth Southtown. In 1862 the Great Eastern Railway took over operation of the line. In 1877 the Felixstowe Branch Line opened. In 1885 an ambitious Midland Railway scheme would, had it come to fruition, have seen Westerfield Junction linked to Chesterton Junction just north of Cambridge. Like so many schemes of the time it foundered and died a natural death.
  During the 1880s the station served a factory belonging to the Westerfield Steam Brewery (which also dealt in coal and corn). Coal merchant Thomas Moy was listed as operating in 1896 and 1900.
  On 25 September 1900, at 8:45 am, GER Class Y14 0-6-0 locomotive No. 522 which was then just a year old, stopped at a signal on the Ipswich side of the level crossing awaiting a route to the Felixstowe branch. Shortly afterwards the boiler exploded, killing driver John Barnard and his fireman William MacDonald, both based at Ipswich engine shed. The boiler was thrown 40 yards forwards over the level crossing and landed on the down platform. Apparently the locomotive had a history of boiler problems although in the official report the boiler foreman at Ipswich engine shed was blamed. The victims were buried in Ipswich cemetery and both their gravestones have a likeness of a Y14 0-6-0 carved onto them.
  On 3 May 1902 Westerfield almost became a four-way junction when a sod cutting ceremony for the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway was held adjacent to the north side of the goods yard. The original plan was to link up with the Mid-Suffolk Railway at Debenham and a short section of this line was built at the Debenham end. It was never completed.
  Around the early 20th century, excursion trains travelled from such places as the Framlingham Branch to Felixstowe and it is possible the locomotives would have run round the carriages in the station (rather than run to Ipswich) in order to access the branch. No scheduled services did this.
  In 1923 the Great Eastern Railway was merged into the London and North Eastern Railway. During World War II a number of engines were stored in the bay platforms but returned to use later in the war. These included three of the regular Felixstowe branch engines Nos. 6123, 6128 and 6130 (C14 4-4-2T). It was also where Polish armoured train C was based.
  In 1948 the railways were nationalised and Westerfield Junction became part of the Eastern Region of British Railways. During the winter months in the 1950s a pair of camping coaches were stored in the goods yard. These were based at Felixstowe Pier during the summer. In the 1960s, as part of the Beeching cuts, the East Suffolk Line was marked for closure but a vigorous local campaign saw it saved. It was reduced to a very basic railway in order to cut costs although some through-services to London survived until the 1980s.
  On 13 July 1964 the goods yard closed with the track in the bay platforms being lifted sometime later in the 1960s. In 1967 all booking offices in the area closed and all trains became operated by conductor guards. The late 1960s saw the steady growth of freight through Felixstowe with Freightliner trains being seen increasingly through Westerfield.
  In 1985 the layout was changed in connection with the introduction of Radio Electronic Token Block signalling. Trains for Felixstowe no
caption: Westerfield Junction signal box in 1979
exif: {}