Mangapps Railway Museum – history, recent updates and future plans

Presenter: John Jolly

Virtual Meeting via Zoom

Our group is getting accustomed to virtual meetings and they work well, apart from one or two glitches. Our speaker confessed to this being his first time with this medium. However, no one would have guessed, as he spoke for2 ½ hours off the cuff – a natural storyteller. During the first half John spoke without visual aids about the history of this railway museum, about his childhood and youth and his life as a farmer in Essex and Suffolk and how he developed an interest in railways. The museum owes its existence partly to the need for farmers to diversify away from food production into something more economical. This evidently suited John and his son James, who is his co-conspiratorin the venture. Starting very small the collection has grown into a very wide-ranging collection of “Railwayana”. John spoke engagingly about his collection and how the many artefacts came into his hands and the help he had received along the way in locating items,setting-up and in transporting some of the larger exhibits. The museum opened in 1989, coinciding with the centenary celebrations of the GE routes to Southend and the Dengie peninsular.

During the second half John used some excellent photographs to illustrate the collection and we gained some idea of the range. It should be pointed out that many of our members are no strangers to the museum and our branch has visited every July for the last few years. But there is always something new to see, including visiting steam locos. Much of the collection is now housed in new buildings, purpose-built to protect them. Among the locomotives that can be run along the ¾ mile track are two Class 31s and three 03s. A 47 is currently out on loan. Rolling-stock also includes a caboose. Static exhibits range from old station buildings and signal boxes to a fine collection of ground signals. There are many other items, including BR totem signs, too much to mention here; so why not visit when it re-opens on 1st August.http://www.mangapps.co.uk