Sectorisation, London and South Eastern and Network SouthEast

British Rail was sectorised in 1982, previously the railway was still divided into the regions defined when BR took over from the Big Four Railway Companies.

The Sudbury line became part of the London and South Eastern business sector of British Rail, this was formed of the commuter services in the south east of England, on 10th June 1986 the division was re-branded Network SouthEast with a new livery of Blue, Red White and Grey (shown on the Class 101 below).

During this time heritage DMUs were used on the line with the majority of services worked by Class 105 'Cravens' units (above). Class 101 (Left) became the full time operators of the line by 1988 onwards when the last Class 105s were taken out of service and sent for scrapping.

May 1989 saw the responsibility for providing traction on the branch change to Old Oak Common (West London), three Class 101 sets were transferred from Cambridge from 15th May onwards, the first unit to move was Set 04 - 51444 + 54068 which became L223.

Sudbury Station - Vandalism and Relocation

Plans to move Sudbury station back to the site of the original station come to nothing and the land was finally sold off in the mid-1980s to the Ipswich Co-Operative and a new Solar Superstore (now Roys) was built on the site.

Also at around the same time the track bed and platform at the second station was cut back level with the station buildings - the council had purchased the land and a new leisure centre - the Kingfisher - was to be built directly adjacent to the station. The picture to the right shows how close the two buildings once were. (click picture for bigger photo).

The station buildings were leased for a while and used as the Sudbury Museum - a fitting use for the building as it was an important piece of Sudbury's history, however it wasn't to be.

The station was subject to a number of repeated vandalism attacks, and eventually the area under the canopy was boarded off, and a temporary extension to the platform was built (shown left, click for bigger image).

It all came to a sad end for the fine station buildings in 1989/1990 when a arson attack caused a major fire in the buildings (shown right) and as this point there was no other viable option but to demolish the former station masters house and main buildings, and let them join the fate which has seen to the platform two buildings in the 1970s. The damage is shown right (Click image for a larger photo).

One local resident, John Sayers, was able to salvage the station bell which was found dumped in a skip as the buildings were being demolished, despite the promise that the Sudbury Museum would have the chance the take such items in advance of the demolition work.

The bricks from around the windows were salvaged by the East Anglian Railway Museum for potential future use, although the current whereabouts of them is now unknown.

Sudbury's New Station
On 28th October 1990 a new station in Sudbury was opened, making it the third in the town.
This is on the former goods line which previously went into Great Eastern Road, next to what was the current station, this comprised of a single platform of 50 metres in length with very basic facilities.

For a while the footpath which ran towards the signal box was retained behind the new station, and the bridge - known locally as the Station Steps - was kept in order to carry this path other the line.
The bridge was later demolished when the footpath was diverted around the front of the station and through the new car park.

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