Snape branch line

The supporters of the scheme proposed the branch to Snape Bridge in order to secure the support of the owner of Snape Maltings, Newson Garrett, and as a way of securing malted barley traffic for the burgeoning brewery trade in London.

Although no passenger trains ever operated on the branch, a building still known as 'Station House' was constructed, and there have been references to the site as 'Tunstall Station'.

This meant the branch could operate on a one engine in steam principle and no signals would be required at Snape.

[7] On 30 September 1956 the branch was visited by the Suffolk Venturer Rail Tour hauled by an E4 class 2-4-0.

[9] The line crossed a number of timber bridges which restricted the weight of locomotives that could operate over the branch.

When the line opened traffic would have been worked by ECR 0-6-0 locomotives built by Stothert and Slaughter.

Train locomotives never operated into the maltings themselves and shunting was carried out by horses or, in later year, by a Fordsons Tractor.

[13] The Maltings were the raison d’etre of the branch line and the majority of traffic was connected with that establishment.

In the early years there was a limited amount of fish traffic although this soon switched to better connected ports.

[16] During World War 2 and afterwards, rubble from bombed buildings was unloaded at Snape and used for coastal defence purposes.

[7] As petrol rationing eased after World War 2 local agricultural traffic switched to road.

Another factor was the J15 locomotives were life expired (steam had largely disappeared from East Anglia by this time) and the route availability of the line was such that only low speed shunting locomotives would be able to realistically operate the line.

The time that these locomotives would take to get to Snape would have affected the timetable on the East Suffolk Line so the service was withdrawn instead.

The track remained in situ until early 1961 after which it was lifted and land sold off to local farmers.