Eastern Counties Railway
Former English railway company / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) was an English railway company incorporated in 1836 intended to link London with Ipswich via Colchester, and then extend to Norwich and Yarmouth.
Overview | |
---|---|
Locale | East Anglia/East London |
Dates of operation | 1839ā1862 |
Successor | Great Eastern Railway |
Technical | |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1ā2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge (1844-1862) |
Previous gauge | 5 ft (1,524 mm) (1839-44) |
Construction began in 1837 on the first nine miles at the London end.[1] Construction was beset by engineering and other problems, leading to severe financial difficulties. As a result, the project was truncated at Colchester in 1843 but through a series of acquisitions (including the Eastern Union Railway who completed the link between Colchester and Norwich) and opening of other lines, the ECR became the largest of the East Anglian railways.
In 1862 ECR was merged with a number of other companies to form the Great Eastern Railway.