History
of Althorne Station and the Southminster Branch Line
The Southminster Branch Line was built by Great
Eastern Railway (a private company), and opened to goods traffic on 1st
June 1889, and then to passengers on 1st July 1889. The line took
about two years to build with materials shipped by Thames barge from brickfields
in Kent to a quay at Stokes Hall in Althorne. Originally a spur line was built
from Stokes Hall Farm which was used to bring construction materials from the
river to where the main line was being built.
In the early days steam locomotives pulled the trains.
The railway line was originally
twin track in several locations to allow the passing of up and down trains. There was a twin track at Althorne
as evidenced by the old station photograph above. One of the tracks
was a goods lay-by which ran from Althorne to Burnham. In the early days
there was a fine old Victorian station building as shown above. Unfortunately most of it was demolished in the
late 1960's. There remains just a three-sided brick shelter, which was part of
the old building. The station
is now un-manned, whereas, in the halcyon days it had stationmaster and
several staff. There were four semi-detached railway cottages and one detached
house in which the staff lived. (All the properties exist today. However, one
pair of semi-detached cottages has been converted into one detached
house).
Following nationalisation of
the railways in 1948 the line became part of the British Rail - Eastern Region.
During
the mid 1960’s most of the passing loops were removed as part of the economies
by Dr Beeching, the then Chairman of the British Railways Board. The single track line
now has just one passing loop at
Fambridge station (which is the mid-point of the line to allow trains in
opposite directions to pass). This restricts the number of trains that can use
the line. The up train has to wait in the passing loop until the down train
pulls in. In the days of steam and diesel trains, for safety reasons, a token
was passed between the drivers, and the up train could not leave the passing
loop until the driver of the up train was passed a token by the driver of the down train. Since
electrification or the line in 1991 this is no longer necessary.
In
1964 at the time of the National Railway review by Dr Beeching, when British
Rail was in financial difficulties due to the decline in rail travel and
freight, the branch line was in great danger of closure. Thankfully, the line
was saved owing to the development of South Woodham Ferrers, the movement of nuclear waste caskets from the Nuclear Power Station at Bradwell to Sellafield and
the movement of sand and ballast between Southminster and Burnham on Crouch.
In
1995/6 the Conservative Government started the progressive denationalisation of
British Rail. The first franchise for the Southminster Branch Line
was won by First Great Eastern who operated the line until 1st April 2004, when all the operators in East Anglia were merged into
one new franchise. The franchise was won by 'one' railway (part of the National Express
Group).
On February 27th 2008 'one' railway was renamed
'National
Express East Anglia'.
For
more on the history of the line go here
