Greater Anglia Trains at Colchester on December 3rd 2022

4th visit to Colchester Station on the Great Eastern Main Line and being the junction for the Sunshine Coast Line

Featuring services from Greater Anglia and a bit of freight

Colchester station was opened by the Eastern Counties Railway on March 29th 1843.

Originally was referred to as Colchester North locally mainly to avoid confusing it of nearby Colchester Town a stop on the Sunshine Coast Line.

That was originally opened in 1866 by the Tendring Hundred Railway although as St Boltoph's although sincel July 8th 1991 it was renamed Colchester Town.

Colchester Town is open Monday - Saturdays with no services on Sundays although the only exception is either during engineering works on the GEML or December when it's opened alternatively to provide services to Walton-on-the-Naze.

The unusual layout of Colchester station dates from reconstruction in 1962 at the time of electrification

Platform 1 used by trains mostly to Clacton or Colchester Town or sometimes stopping Ipswich services or ECS movements from Colchester Carriage Sidings which can be accessed from the mainline on approach to Colchester or in the other direction from Platform 3.

Platforms 2 and 3 are used for mainline services from Ipswich, Norwich as well as Peak Hour services from Harwich International or Harwich Town. Platform 4 is mostly used by services from Clacton and Colchester Town to London Liverpool Street and connecting to Platform 3 makes it the longest mainline platform in the UK being at 620 metres or 2034 feet long.

Platform 5 is used for terminating hourly services from Walton-on-the-Naze and reversing services to and from Colchester Town.

At one time services from Sudbury via the Gainsborough Line ran to Cambridge until 1967 when it was cut back to Sudbury which would of terminated at Platform 1 at Colchester was cut back in the Mid 1990s to Marks Tey

Although Sudbury can serve Colchester however only either first train of the day to Sudbury or last train of the day from Sudbury with the branch now provided by Class 755/3 Flirts entered service on the branch in January 2020.

The Class 745 Flirts built by Stadler replaced the Class 90s between November 2019 and March 2020 as well as taking over Stansted Express services from the Class 379s

Although 20 have been built however 10 used for Intercity being 745/0s and the 745/1s used for Stansted Express although differ in layout with 745/0s include 1st Class whilst the Stansted Express sets don't include 1st class.

The Class 745s and Class 755s are maintained at Crown Point, Norwich

The Class 321s now just the renatus sets left on GEML were in their final months of operation.

Music used:
JJD - Adventure
Music provided by NCS

Video link:
NoCopyrightSounds
   • JJD - Adventure | Glitch Hop | NCS - ...  

Filmed on Saturday December 3rd 2022 on iPhone 14 Pro and edited on iMovie

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