(cra)+Last+days+of+Middy+Line




 * The "Little-Boy-Grown-Up" Sees The Last Of His Railway**

Mid-Suffolk Line Is Finished WHEN in 1908, the first passenger train ran from Laxfield to Haughley on the newly-constructed Mid- Suffo1k Light Railway a small boy rode as a passenger with a large party of Laxfield schoolchildren.

He little guessed that when the last train ran on that line he would be the guard, and would be greeted with handshakes, hand-wavings and even posies of flowers from people waiting, at the stations on the line to bid farewell to their local train service.

But when, on Saturday afternoon, the last train ran from Haughley to Laxfield and back it was Mr. Willis Keeble, the small boy grown up, who blew his whistle and waved his flag for the last time as guard on the now defunct branch line.

Gangers will shortly tear up the old rails. It has not yet been decided what is to be done about the station buildings, since it is thought, as one railway official put it, that "it would cost more to remove them than it would to run the railway for another three years."

CROWDED STATIONS The single track line, covering some fifteen miles, linked up ten stations. All of them were thronged with people, and the last train, drawn by the line's carefully polished engine, hearing a wreath of leaves on the boiler, was so packed with sightseers that one Passenger remarked: "British Railways could make a profit if they announced that every train was the, last one."

For Mr. Keeble, a guard on the line since 1917, the contrast in traffic on Saturday as compared with the 1ast few months was a little tragic. The railway began to be built in 1902, served an agricultural area well for many years then began to lose business with the growth of road transport.

In the past few months the single train-it ran twice a day-often made its journey without a passenger, and Mr. Keeble's comment as he saw Saturday's crowds was, "There are always plenty of people who will go to a funeral."

"EDWARDIAN PARTY" The "funeral," however, was made a field day by local people. Fog signals were placed at intervals along the line and a loudspeaker van at Mendlesham played "Land of Hope and Glory," and "Auld Lang Syne." A party of people dressed in Edwardian clothes, who boarded the last train at Haughley and made the return journey, turned out to be East Suffolk County Council staff from the County Hall, Ipswich, who decided that the last run should have a "touch of 1902 atmosphere about it.'

Among the people waving on Mendlesham station was Mr. A. Mayfield; a local retired schoolmaster, who decided that as he had seen the first train come into Mendlesham he would see the last one out.

On Stradbroke platform stood Mr. Esau Collett, 78-year-old retired London platelayer, who happened to be staying with his relatives at Stradbroke. He had heard so much about the railway that he decided that the official closing was a ceremony he should not miss.

But the closing of the line means £or Mr. Keeble, who estimates he has made over 30,000 trips as a guard, the break-up of a life-long association. Seven years after he had ridden on the first train as a schoolboy he joined up with the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway. Now he becomes a Summer season guard operating from Ipswich. He will take with him his old M.S.L.R., guard's lamp.

FIFTY THOUSAND TRIPS The railwayman who has made the most journeys on the line was also on the last train-but as a passenger. He was Mr. Arthur Bowen, of Laxfield who before his retirement in 1948 had made some 50,000 trips on the Haughley to Laxfield run as driver or fireman.

Mr. Ollie Botwright who is now 51 has spent practically his whole life on the branch line, and was up till Saturday a clerk at Stradbroke, on the branch line. He now goes into the District Manager's office at Ipswich as a clerk.

Stradbroke stationmaster Mr. Edgar Gladwell, is organist at Laxfield Church, and reluctant to sever his ties with the locality, especially as he is due to retire in two years' time. So he will become a clerk at Framlinghaan station.

Driver Mr. Joseph Skinner took railway officials on his footplate on the last run, and then, with his fireman, Mr. Jack Law, went back to Ipswich for future instructions. Driver Mr. Ernest Baker and fireman Mr. Ronald Thompson had already reported back at Ipswich after making their last run earlier in the day.

The comment of the four of them summed up the verdict of all except the old stagers of the line-'Well, times change."

Our pictures show members of the County Hall staff,Ipswich, recalling the scenes of the opening days of the line, and (below) the fireman opens the gate for the last time.