Maldon East and Heybridge railway station served the town of Maldon, Essex. It was opened in 1848 by the Maldon, Witham & Braintree Railway on a branch line from to Maldon. It was originally named Maldon but was renamed Maldon East in 1889 and then Maldon East and Heybridge in 1907. It was a terminus station located at the end of two branch lines from Witham and Woodham Ferrers. A plan dated 1920 shows that the station had a goods shed and a two-road engine shed. A turntable was situated adjacent to the station building and there were sidings that served the Blackwater Canal and the river wharf. The line and the station closed to passenger services in 1964 as part of the Beeching closures.
Description
The station building at Maldon is an impressive example of Victorian railway architecture. The reason behind this is during the 1847 election the potential MP was looking to woo his constituents. A lot of local people found employment on the construction of the railway and it was reported in an investigation into the election afterwards that some of these were not actually fit to do the work they were paid for. The station building was built in the Jacobean style, with a large booking hall, waiting rooms and ticket officeon the ground floor. The upper floor contained the station master’s apartments which were reached by a winding staircase from the booking hall. Originally the single platform was partly covered by a glass roof but this was removed after an explosion of an engine boiler caused significant damage. A second bay platform was added in 1889.
History
The branch from Witham was part of a scheme to link Braintree with its traditional port at Maldon. The scheme started in 1845 as a direct link from Braintree rather than the two branches that were actually built. It soon ran into financial trouble and was taken over by the Eastern Counties Railway keen to ensure there was no competition for its own interests. And this was before work actually started Construction started in March 1847 and the first goods trains ran in August 1848 followed by the opening to passenger trains on 2 October of the same year. In 1862 the Eastern Counties Railway was taken over by the Great Eastern Railway. The station was originally named Maldon, but after the opening of the Maldon West line on 1 October 1889, the station was renamed to Maldon East. The 50 foot diameter turntable as no steam locomotives were using the branch. The line was slated for closure in the Beeching Report and despite the efforts of local campaigners the last passenger train ran on 6 September 1964. Freight lingered on with gravel and fruit traffic until 15 April 1966.
Locomotives
Ex Norfolk Railway 2-4-0 locomotives worked early trains on the branch. From GER days until 1958 the passenger service was generally in the hands of a GER Class M15. Occasionally GER Class Y14 0-6-0 locomotives worked passenger services as did a T26 for one summer. Other GER tank engines occasionally worked passenger services and 0-6-0T engines from the R24 and C72 classes worked goods traffic until succumbing to dieselisation. From 1958 the station was operated by the first generation of BR Railbuses numbers E79960-E79964 which were based at Cambridge and which also worked a number of lightly used East Anglian branch lines. The Class 15 locomotives took over freight workings as weight restrictions on the timber bridges on the branch meant nothing heavier could work as far as Maldon. A member of this class operated the last goods train in April 1966.
Maldon engine shed
This was a substantial two track building. Until the Maldon West branch opened in 1889 there was no turntable located at Maldon so any tender engines working the branch would have had to have worked one direction tender first. In organisational terms Maldon was a sub-shed of Colchester and any locomotives needing heavy repair were sent there. In GER days the shed had two drivers, two acting drivers, four firemen and a boiler washer. On 1 January 1922 the shed had an allocation of four GER Class C32 2-4-2T locomotive and a single GER Class Y65 2-4-2T locomotive. The shed closed sometime after dieselisation c 1959.
Goods traffic
The sidings to the River Blackwater and Blackwater Canal provided additional traffic. As well as agricultural produce there was significant coal traffic in the early years of the railway.
Train services
In 1847 there were five trains each way to Witham. Between 1874 and 1883 there were nine services per day to Witham, but ten years later this had reduced to seven. Bradshaw’s Timetable Guide for 1910 shows seven trains per day with two additional services on a Wednesday. By 1939 there were nine services per day but it was not until 1958 and the introduction of Diesel Multiple Units that the branch enjoyed a service of 17 trains per day. On opening the Woodham Ferrers branch was served by five trains per day and this struggled for traffic throughout its life. By 1914 there were six trains per day although this reduced during the First World War. In 1939 traffic was withdrawn from the Woodham Ferrers line as a wartime economy measure and never restarted.
Since closure
The station building has survived and was for many years a restaurant. As of August 2013 it is largely surrounded by an industrial estate although its impressive frontage can still be viewed from Station Road. The original large goods shed stood until May 2008 when it was illegally demolished to make way for development.
