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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 east of and down-line from London Liverpool Street. It is situated at a junction of the Felixstowe Branch Line to and the East Suffolk Line to . 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.〔cite web|url=http://www.suffolk.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/10103EA2-541D-4080-B167-74057930BF97/0/FinalReportv1TL.PDF〕 Westerfield station is currently managed by Abellio Greater Anglia, which also operates all trains serving the station. Services are typically formed of , and 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 . Behind the Ipswich-bound platform the original platform and station building of the Felixstowe Dock & Railway Company can still be seen. ==History== In about 1847, the Ipswich & Bury Railway had secured the rights to build a line from to 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 to 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.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The coming of the railway to the area )〕 It continued north to on what is now part of the Wherry Lines. On the 1 June 1859 the line was opened as far south as Westerfield and Ipswich and north to Yarmouth Vauxhall.〔 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 . 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.〔'East Suffolk Railway' J M Cooper (Oakwood Press 1982 ISBN 085361 285 4) p. 32〕 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.〔Jill Freestone and Richard W Smith "Ipswich Engines and Ipswich Men" ISBN 0-9532257-0-4 (1998)〕〔http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/BoT_Westerfield1900.pdf〕 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.〔Nicholas Comfort "The Mid-Suffolk Light Railway" Oakwood Press Third edition ISBN 0-85361-509-8 (1997)〕 Around the early 20th century, excursion trains travelled from such places as the Framlingham Branch to 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).〔H I Quayle and G T Bradbury, The Felixstowe Railway. Oakwood Press 1977〕 It was also where Polish armoured train C was based.〔(Armoured trains ), from (Suffolk Anti Invasion Defences )〕 In 1948 the railways were nationalised and British Railways took over operation of Westerfield Junction. During the winter months in the 1950s a pair of camping coaches were stored in the goods yard. These were based at during the summer.〔Great Eastern Railway Society Journal no 86 Page 38〕 In the 1960s 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 now changed tracks west of the level crossing and worked through the Ipswich-bound platform. Westerfield's signal box remained as the Felixstowe branch was still signalled under the Absolute Block system. The signal box closed in 1999 and the Felixstowe branch was controlled by the Colchester Power Signal Box under the Track Circuit Block system of signalling. In the early 1990s the Felixstowe Dock & Railway Company buildings which had stood derelict for many years were converted to a private residence. In 1994 the railways were privatised. The ownership of the infrastructure passed to Railtrack (which was replaced by Network Rail in 2002). The trains were initially operated by a business unit and the first franchise was awarded to Anglia Railways. The second round of franchising in 2004 saw the One franchise owned by National Express Group take over; this was renamed National Express East Anglia in 2008. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Westerfield railway station」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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