East Anglian Album by Dr. Ian C. Allen

EAST ANGLIAN ALBUM

by

DR IAN CAMERON ALLEN

To Richard Hardy. His knowledge of the locomotives portrayed in this book was only surpassed by his knowledge and understanding of the men who drove and maintained them.

Wherever the traveller goes today in the British Isles, he sees signs of derelict railways. East Anglia has its fair share of these, and in this volume of photographs I have tried to bring to life again an era of public transport which has gone for ever. The photos were all taken during the last decade of steam working, and I have tried to show what a finely integrated service the railway gave. It was this system of public transport, which developed from the invention of the steam locomotive, that has made possible all mankind's modern scientific progress.

The L.N.E.R., which served East Anglia, had been badly affected by the industrial depression of the early nineteen-thirties.It consequently concentrated on building main line locomotives, and never adopted the policy of stand-ardising its whole locomotive stock which had been followed by the L.M.S. and G. W. systems.Consequently,during the nineteen-fifties there was a wonderful variety of locomotives to be seen and which it was my hobby to try and record photographically. This book is not a detailed history, but an attempt to recapture the fascination of a steam locomotive at work-that mystic enchantment of sight, sound and smell that has stimulated the imagination of so many people since the days of George Stephenson's Rocket.

The photographs are arranged in as logical a way as possible, to illustrate a journey from Liverpool Street to Norwich and Cromer,

route. From Cromer,

showing the various branches en

the M. & G.N. line is taken to

Spalding and Peterborough. Returning to King's Lynn, the Hunstanton, Wells-next-the-Sea and Dereham branches are shown before travelling south from King's Lynn to Ely, both via the main line, and via March.

From Ely the cross country line to Bury St. Edmunds is shown, and from there to Long Melford, where the Cam-bridge-Marks Tey line is joined.

From Marks Tey the main line to Ipswich is taken once again, to reach the East Suffolk line.

Norwich is reached

via Lowestoft and Yarmouth and the return to Liverpocl Street from Norwich is via Ely, Cambridge and Bishop's Stortford.

In the taking of these photographs I made many friends whom I should like to thank for their kindness, which I shall always remember.

Ian Cameron Allen

Thorpeness, Suffolk

April 1975