The railway at Witham dates from 1843 and the branches to Braintree and Maldon from 1848; the cross-country line to Bishop's Stortford was opened in 1869. The passenger service on the Bishop's Stortford - Braintree line was withdrawn in 1952 and, after the publication of the Beeching Report in 1963, the same fate was scheduled for the other branches. However the Braintree branch survived and, together with Witham, is a busy commuter line. In this book we take a journey over the line from Bishop's Stortford to Maldon via Braintree and Witham to view what has changed over the last 165 years. Unusually for today the Braintree branch line survives, and fortunately most of the cross-country line is now designated the 'Flitch Way'. The Maldon line, since closure, has been put to many other uses, including use as the town's road bypass.

The Manningtree to Harwich railway branch linked the Great Eastern Main line to the ports of Harwich and, later, Harwich Parkeston Quay. From the early days of the railways the management encouraged boat train services to the continent. These peaked in the 1980s. This book is a journey along the line, visiting all the open and closed stations passed on the route of the line. Contained within are older pictures, from the GER and LNER era, plus steam views from the 1950s and shots of the diesel era and post-electrification era that followed. Although much rationalised, the branch is very much still with us and enjoys frequent electric train services to Manningtree, Colchester and London Liverpool Street.