Opening and early years Locomotive activity started on the depot site with the opening of the
original Ipswich station located at Croft Street and (presumably the newly named) Station St in June 1846 by the
Eastern Union Railway. Locomotives belonging to sister company the Ipswich and Bury Railway would also have used the facilities when their line opened in November 1846 although the two railway companies were worked as one from January the following year. In June 1851 the EUR had 31 locomotives breaking down thus: All locomotives carried a green livery. In 1854 the EUR was taken over by the
Eastern Counties Railway and in 1860 the new
Ipswich railway station opened after the tunnel was completed. It was at this time a carriage and wagon works was established on the site of the old station. The initial engine shed was a two road shed with associated sidings and a small (befitting the size of engine of the time) turntable. The history of the shed for the next 90 or so years was a case of poor facilities being provided for what was a busy engine shed, and head of a significantly sized organisational district including major sub-sheds at Colchester and Parkeston as well as a host of smaller sheds. The site was always cramped and poorly equipped with every day servicing of engines taking place in the open.
Great Eastern The
Great Eastern Railway was formed in 1862 by the amalgamation of several East Anglian Railways. In August 1878 there was a fire in the four road engine shed which resulted in a number of workmen losing their tools. The company replaced these with a grant and the shed was repaired. At the end of 1922 the shed at Ipswich had an allocation of 131 locomotives being the third biggest shed on the Great Eastern behind Stratford (555) and Cambridge (178) sheds. The allocation consisted of:
London North Eastern years The
London and North Eastern Railway came into existence in 1923. Whilst Great Eastern types provided the majority of the types allocated to Ipswich shed, newer LNE types and engines from other LNER constituent companies were allocated. • B1 4-6-0 • B17 4-6-0 • C12 4-4-2T Ivatt Great Northern locomotive some of which were used on
Felixstowe Branch Line • C14 4-4-2T Robinson/GC - From 1936. Three of which allocated to Felixstowe shed the other two to Ipswich. Included 6123, 6128 & 6130
BR years In the early years of
British Rail, Ipswich shed was host to visiting
Southern Railway Battle of Britain class 4-6-2 locomotives before the introduction of the Britannia class in the early 1950s. Working conditions in the shed were extremely poor and the Shed Foreman later wrote "The conditions in which the boiler washers and tube cleaners worked in winter beggared description with boilers being emptied and blown down, others being washed out and steam and water everywhere" This state of affairs led to the preparation of plans to modernize the depot. The shed was completely rebuilt in 1954 into a concrete 6 track straight through road shed. In 1955 the locomotive allocation totalling 79 locomotives was as follows: The 0-6-0T engines were generally used for shunting and local trip work. J15, J39 and J17 were freight locomotives. All other locomotives were primarily passenger but it was not unknown for some of them to work freight trains as well. The Ivatt designed 2MT 2-6-2T no 41200 was allocated to the shed for tests on local branches including the
Aldeburgh Branch Line. Later that year the first
Diesel Multiple Units worked in the area and no other members of this class were allocated. In 1959, Ipswich received its first allocation of mainline diesels. On 11 June 1959, class J19 0-6-0 locomotive No. 64641 was the last steam locomotive to be repaired at the depot. On 5 March 1960 the last steam working from Ipswich shed was headed by J15 0-6-0 No. 65389 which worked the last freight train to Snape. However a pair of B1 4-6-0s (61059 numbered departmental 17 and 61252 numbered 22) were retained as carriage heating units. No. 17 operated between 1964 and succeeding No. 22 which had undertaken the role since December 1963. On 21 November 1963, Class 15 No. D8221 crashed through the buffer stops and into Croft Street. In 1963 the diesel allocation at Ipswich consisted of 55 locomotives which broke down thus: The Class 03, 04, 05 and DY1/1 locomotives were all shunting engines. The Class 15 engines were generally employed on local freight workings whilst Class 24 and Class 31s were employed on mixed traffic (i.e. both freight and passenger workings).
Closure The last diesel locomotive maintenance was carried out on a Class 15 locomotive on 5 May 1968, and the depot was closed on 6 May 1968. Fuelling facilities for locomotives were then provided at
Ipswich railway station, and maintenance of the remaining shunter fleet was undertaken at Colchester. The depot remained empty for about a week before a number of engineers' maintenance trains were stabled there. A number of withdrawn
British Rail Class 15 locomotives were stored on site during the 1970s. During the early 1980s the site was used as the electrification depot for the extension of the overhead wiring from Colchester to Harwich, Ipswich (May 1985) and Norwich. Celebration of 150 years of the
Eastern Union Railway was held at the site in 1996. After closure of the depot the Carriage and Wagon Works continued until 1994. The site was used to store some locomotives between 2000 and 2001 before demolition c. 2003. Wagon repairs were carried out in Ipswich Lower Yard after this date.
Class 37 locomotive 37379 was named 'Ipswich WRD, Quality Approved' in recognition of the work the depot undertook. The site today is occupied by a housing estate. ==Operations==