Exploring the remains of Suffolk's Closed Railways with Lawrie

Hello everyone,
Today we're doing something a little different. Lawrie has realised in his travels over his home county there are plenty of remnants to the railway network that used to operate there, and thought it would be fun to show you some of his favourites, so join him for an adventure!

A video featuring, shot and edited by Lawrie.

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[TheHatMusic]

Oh nice! Some industrial archeology with Lawrie. Excellent.

[sarahhall]

In the 60s mum remembers running along the docks from Suffolk college which then was the civic college she was part of the first intake of students. She would use the docks as a short cut to get to the station to get back to Saxmundham so nan could pick her up to get home to Kelsale. Yes she did wear a short skirt heels and hope for wolf whistles from the dock workers and remember to look out for the engines otherwise they would blow their whistle at her. 😊

[alistairshaw]

Great video, Lawrie, well researched and presented as usual. Give us more like this!

[crazyfvck]

This is a very fitting video :) You'll be happy to hear, Lawrie, that I saved some of my local railway history from being scrapped just a few days ago :) (sorry in advance for writing a novel here.)

A former lumberyard near the downtown area is being redeveloped after 20 years of being vacant. The structures were pulled down almost immediately after it closed, and nothing remains on the property, with the exception of some concrete pads, and the rails embedded in the asphalt of the back lot, that the rail cars once rode on to deliver lumber :) I was lucky enough to see one there being unloaded when I was a kid, during a trip with my dad.

Anyway, I just happened to drive by there last Friday, and I saw excavators there ripping up some of the concrete. I knew I had to stop by. In the process of taking some pictures, I noticed a gentleman standing near the temporary construction fence. As it turned out, he was the Superintendent of the construction company, and we talked for a bit. I asked him if it would be possible to buy a chunk of the rail near the edge of the property, as a souvenir. He told me that it would be up to the contractor that would be ripping up the rail next week, and that I should swing by at some point to talk to him. I asked the superintendent for his phone number, which he gave me, and I went on my way.

Monday came around, and I figured I would call him, to see when the guy would be there ripping up the track. When I talked to him on the phone, I couldn't believe what he told me. He informed me that they had found the remains of an old locomotive turntable, long since buried under the ground! I have no idea how long it had been buried, but it was at least since 1930, when the first lumberyard moved in. Anyway, the actual turntable mechanism was long gone, and the pit had been filled in with concrete. But the gentleman informed me that the track stubs were still there, embedded in the outer ring of the turntable foundation. And he said they were going to try to get them out, and if they did, I could have them!

Sure enough, he called me a few hours later, and said that they had successfully removed four 4 foot sections of rail, and I could have them if I bought the workers lunch. I was shocked! I let him know that I would swing by the next morning to pick them up. The next morning rolled around, and I met him at the site. And I was surprised to discover that they had found 2 MORE pieces, which they had also pulled out for me :) So, in all, I took home 6 pieces of 4ft rail, that had been buried since at least 1930. And they were in amazing condition, because there was also a thin slab of concrete poured on top of them, before they backfilled with dirt. That preserved them very well. As far as dates go, one of the rails said 1907 on it :)

But it gets better! A few hours later, he called me again, and said that he had found more pieces! It must have been a pretty big turntable. So he said I could have those too, as long as I bought lunch again. So I showed up the next morning, and collected another four pieces :))) In all, I now have 10 pieces of 4ft rail, from a historic turntable that I never knew about :) One rail from the second batch also had a date on it, which was 1901. I went digging through some maps online, and I found one that showed a turntable on the property back in 1892 :) So it is at least that old. And I still can't believe how good the rail still is, after all of these years! Though it is mostly white in color now, because of the concrete (I may coat it in oil to make it look more like normal rail again.) I ended up with something much cooler than what I was originally trying to get, because the piece of rail that I wanted was from 1987 :P

And I intend to use this rail again, for what it was meant for. I'm going to clean up the ends that were cut with a torch all of those decades ago, and put them back into service. As I mentioned to you a long time ago, I plan to install a 2 foot gauge railway on my property. But first, I want to build the locomotive, which I have already acquired several thousand pounds of steel to do :) It will be my own version of the narrow-gauge Ruston 48 that you reviewed several years ago (the loud one.) But in order to build it, I need some rails in my garage ;) And that is where these sections will come in. In all, I have 40 feet of rail now, which means that I can have 20 feet of rail side by side. And that is just about perfect, because my garage is 22 feet long :) The rail is 100lb, which is overkill for the 5-6 ton loco that I will be building, but that's just fine.

It really is amazing how one thing can lead to another. If I didn't have last week off, I never would have driven by that site in the first place. And if I didn't make the choice to turn around once I saw what they were doing, those pieces of historic rail would have been lost forever. Sometimes, you're just the right person at the right time, and if you don't do something, no one will.

[MillBrookRailroad]

You've started down this rabbit hole. Please continue!

[User]

What a fantastic video! So marvellously spoken throughout

[TheGaryET]

I really enjoyed this one Lawrie, I live in Hadleigh so I was pleased to see you mention it. Long Melford station still exists as a private residence and the embankment along the A134 is still visible where it crossed over. Lavenham is where you should check out, the station long gone and a housing estate built on the site but the bridge the tracks passed under is still there, soot stained and all! Thanks mate. (PS I have a few vehicles you may be interested in too!)

[HistoryNeedsYou]

Excellent! I live by the Stour Valley Line and every day cars queue all the way from Haverhill into Cambridge. The track bed is still 90% intact so the line could be, and should be, returned to use as light rail

[Menticknap]

Loved it. Thanks. We all live near disused railway lines unfortunately. Mine is the Malton to Driffield line. Closed to passengers in 1952, freight in 1958.

[chipking]

I enjoyed that 100 cent can you please do more like this thank you and hope you have a good day

[markinkyushu]

Good to your still making interesting content around Suffolk Lawrie

[jamesfrancis]

Wow, this triggered lots of memories, from ten years ago being thrown off my bike by now gone rails at Ipswich wet dock to the Hadoop railway walk bring a childhood biking favourite. Trying to walk the the line from Hadleigh from whenham to the Bentley junction. Cheers and would love to revisit some of Suffolk's railway now. I want to model the gun shed on the Felixstowe line from the Second world war.... Very well timed video to land on YouTube on a great Friday night!

[dalexdba]

Loved it! Please do more, and in-depth explorations! Many thanks!

[dieselbushcraft]

Yes definitely more like this please, I’m not from this area but I find this type of thing fascinating.

[bramdeheus]

I would love to see an entire episode of this devoted to the Middy alone.

[MrWesternDuke]

That brought back a few memories. I used to live on the opposite side of the road to Long Melford Station in the early 1970s. We used to play in the station and yard area where you could see the indentations of where the sleepers used to be. The retired (redundant?) Station Master still lived on the premises. We then moved to Cavendish where you could still find the end of the platform, despite the new-build houses. I caught the train from Sudbury to Marks Tey/Colchester from the old (through) station many times. The current station is on the site of the original 1800s station, which then became the goods yard. At one time you could see rails in the tarmac extending along a couple of roads.

[derekhenshaweasyputter]

An excellent way to expand the channel, evidence of what was is always of interest that chronicles the past from a different perspective that can only make history more complete.

[rubenskiii]

Loved this! Reminds me of watching "RailAway" as a child.

[johnmac]

fascinating , i do love industrial archaeology .. and Lawrie seems to be getting the hang of drone work

[SgtThurston]

Wonderful video! There is another interesting bit of lost line running from Lowestoft to Great Yarmouth as well. Plenty of old remnants of the line can still be found, such as the East Linear Park in Lowie (I used to walk it every day going to school way back when). The Park is the old line, Used to cut in across Barnard's Meadow Football Ground (Which also used to be Coal yards).