Steam icon Oliver Cromwell will be back on the main line from London to East Anglia on Thursday – and is expected to attract a number of admirers to watch what may be its final visit to the region.
Its boiler certificate runs out next month and there has been no decision on whether the National Railway Museum’s locomotive will be overhauled to return to the main line – or just kept as a static exhibit at one of the NRM’s sites.
The train will leave Colchester for Norwich at 11.44am on Thursday, passing non-stop through Ipswich at about 12.30pm and beside Needham Lakes where a large crowd is likely to watch it at about 12.40pm.
The best places to see it in Ipswich are likely to be at Bourne Park just before 12.30 and from Gippeswyck Park near the station as it passes by the former goods yard.
Its return trip will be during the darkness, returning to Colchester at 8.45pm
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