Wickham Market

OO Gauge 1950s British Railways - Eastern Region

Wickham Market Station (sign-boarded "Wickham Market for Campsea Ashe") is on the East Suffolk line between Lowestoft & Ipswich & was dual track, with an up-line and a down-line, each with its own platform. There is a further platform for the Framlington branch which joins the mainline at Wickham Market Junction also show on our layout. The station has a signal box and numerous sidings and goods facilities & grain facilities.

Services for passengers included a ticket office, waiting room and bookstall, and the nearby Talbot Hotel (now "The Dog and Duck" village pub). There was especially ample provision for loading goods and livestock to and from the agricultural hinterland, and even ramps for military vehicles during the second world war. Some vestiges of this infrastructure can be traced today.

The line itself, together with branch lines to Framlington, Snape and Aldeburgh, was completed by the East Suffolk railway company in 1859 and train services started on 1st June that year. This was towards the end of the period of "Railway Mania" that swept Britain during the early part of the 19th Century. The section of line between Ipswich and Halesworth completed the East Suffolk link from the Liverpool Street to Cambridge line to the southwest, and the Halesworth, Beccles & Haddiscoe lines further north, with its onward links to Norwich.