Train saved from the scrap heap is fully restored

The restoration of a historic electric train has been completed, with members of the public able to have a look inside for the first time.

Brad Wright, 22, a railway enthusiast from Needham Market, Suffolk, bought the British Railways Class 309, also known as the Clacton Express, in March 2022.

He had been restoring it along with a team of volunteers at the East Anglian Railway Museum in Wakes Colne, near Colchester.

Mr Wright said he was proud to have finished the work and have it on show during the Essex Electrics Exhibition at the museum on Saturday.

"It was great to get involved to save it, but to then donate it to the museum to ensure that it survives well beyond me... was my main goal – to make sure it was safe and preserved for future generations to remember," he explained.

"I couldn't be prouder."

He added he had felt "an immense amount of satisfaction" in completing the restoration.

Mr Wright saved the train from scrap in Sussex in 2022 and set up the Clacton Express Preservation Group – a non-profit group that offers support and volunteers to restoration projects.

The train was a pioneer of its time and operated on the Great Eastern Main Line from London Liverpool Street to Colchester, Clacton and Walton-on-the-Naze from the 1960s.

It also ran to Harwich, Ipswich and Norwich from the 1980s before it was retired in the 1990s.

The Essex Electrics Exhibition celebrates the 40th anniversary of the lines being electrified to Ipswich as well as the 40th anniversary of the refurbishment of the Clacton Express trains.

"They went through a big change in the middle of their lives," Mr Wright said.

"That's how it's preserved now – just as it would have rolled out of the factory 40 years ago after that rebuild."

The team have given the train a complete restoration both inside and outside.

Members of the public can look inside and enjoy other guided talks and demonstrations during the event.

"It's always a boyhood dream when you're an enthusiast of 'Oh, wouldn't it be nice to have a part in saving a train from scrap?'" Mr Wright said.

"It really wasn't looking good for this unit.

"A lot of people wrote it off [and said] 'Just give up, put it to scrap', but to not let that happen and to see that through [has] been a lot of work – very tiring but very, very, immensely, satisfying."

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