European Railroad Discussion > Trains around Ely

I've posted pictures from Ely before, it is rather an interesting location in East Anglia about 70 miles north of London.

Ely is a small city in the county of Cambridge with a stupendous eleventh century cathedral, which towers over the adjacent flat fenland and, as a consequence, is known as the Ship of the Fens. Railways radiate in five directions from Ely, all of them supporting both passenger and freight. There is a north-south electrified line which connects London with the West Norfolk port of King's Lynn, some 30 miles north of Ely. At Ely North Junction, a mile or so north of the station, a line heads north east to the medieval city of Norwich (the largest city and de facto capital of East Anglia) another north westwards to March and Peterborough, a busy freight corridor. At Ely Dock Junction just south of the station a line heads south east towards Bury St Edminds, partly single track it too is a busy freight artery carrying intermodal traffic to the port of Felixstowe, one of Britain's busiest port and a major source of intermodal traffic.

On average there are four or five passenger trains every hour in each direction. Those between Norwich and Liverpool reverse in Ely.

There is also a balloon track between Ely West Jucntion and Ely North Junction (the Ely Loop) which allows trains from King's Lynn and Norwich direct access to the line to Peterborough and vice versa, thus avoiding a reversal in Ely station. Until three weeks ago it was not bi-directional but today it can support trains coming from Peterborough and going to King's Lynn or Norwich and vice versa.

On Saturday morning the 4E62 Felixstowe to Doncaster crossing the water meadows in front of the cathedral.

The 6L85 from Warrington Arpley to Middleton Towers (the sand loading point a few miles east of King's Lynn) taking the Ely Loop at Ely West Junction. This may have been the first DBS train to use the loop in this direction, it was running 30+ minutes late only to emerge on the King's Lynn line two minutes early!

As I said it is busy, here the 4E22, Felixstowe to Leeds, passes the 4L02, Hams Hall to Felixstowe, on the water meadows. Tracking the progress of both trains via the realtimestrains website I suspected this might happen.

More pictures of Saturday morning and last week in London here http://nick86235.smugmug.com/Trains/2014/Spring-2014/i-Jk8nfTg



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/07/14 13:39 by 86235.

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Hi 86235,

I thought Ely is in Nevada, but your pic´s are looking British.

Interesting all Diesels under the wire.

Thanks for posting

Erwin from Austria

spandfecerwin Wrote:
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>
> I thought Ely is in Nevada, but your pic´s are
> looking British.
>

There is hardly a single town or village in Britain that does not have its name repeated somewhere in North America.

It is, of course, very disconcerting when in the US or Canada to find place names completely unrelated to each other in close juxtaposition, or the other way round. To come across Rugby and Glasgow on the Empire Builder is quite extraordinary, while Dinorwic in western Ontario should be next to Bethesda which is in Maryland. I just hope that Americans have some sense of where their place names came from, but I'm sure they do (or at least those on TO do!)

Wonderful pictures, by the way. I remember cycling from Cambridge to Ely in 1963 and being stunned by the emerging view of the cathedral rising steeple and nave above the town in the most mediaeval fashion. Great stuff!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/08/14 15:41 by spflow.

Thanks, the diesels are only under the wire for a short distance, in the cases of pictures 1 and 3 about 3kms between Ely Dock and Ely North Junctions.

Hello, I am a long time reader of your comments and photos. I am a juice fan since 1944, having been "electrified" with the Pacific Electric! I'm hoping to spend a month in your country sometime in the future; therefore I appreciate and keep a file of all locations to visit when there. Thanks to all of you for your posts!

John K.

John Koschwanez
Oceanside, CA
[url=aardvarkind@gmail.com]aardvarky[/url]

Thank you John.

Regarding place names in the US, it amused me that driving south from Folkston GA I encountered a town called Boulogne FL- of course in the recent past ferries ran from Folkstone in Kent, England, to Boulogne France. I'm sure there must be other places similarly positioned over there. One of my distant ancestors was once Mayor of Folkestone in England.

In Lincolnshire in Eastern England the town of Boston, from where the Pilgrim Fathers originated, is a mere 10 miles from the village of New York.

Wellsirs, we gots us a Paris and a London right cheer in Kentucky...

timecruncher

Nice pix all - that is a massive cathedral in that first photo. Lordy!