A SPECIAL exhibition has opened illustrating the history of the Ipswich to Felixstowe line and marking its 125th anniversary.Ipswich Transport Museum in Cobham Road, is holding the event from now until December.

A SPECIAL exhibition has opened illustrating the history of the Ipswich to Felixstowe line and marking its 125th anniversary.

Ipswich Transport Museum, Cobham Road, is holding the event from now until December.

The exhibition will be open at the normal museum opening times and will consist of a display of over 170 photographs, depicting various scenes throughout the history of the line between Westerfield Junction and Felixstowe.

There will also be other artefacts, such as station signs, destination boards and other material on show.

The museum will also be publishing an illustrated history booklet on 125 years of the Ipswich to Felixstowe Railway which should be available to buy from the museum in mid-May.

It is open every Sunday and Bank Holiday December 1 from 11am to 4.30pm, last admission 4pm.

In school holidays, it will open June 3 to June 7, July 22 to September 3 and October 21 to October 25, 2pm-4pm.

The Ipswich Transport Museum has the largest collection of transport items in Britain devoted to just one town. Everything was either made or used in and around Ipswich.The Felixstowe-Ipswich line was built by Colonel George Tomline, Lord of the manor of Walton-cum-Trimley, and opened on May 1, 1877.

He had a fixed idea that Felixstowe would grow up around the Beach Station, after completing the railway line.

He was the proud owner of ticket number 0001 – the first ever passenger on the line.

Colonel Tomline ran the line for several years, with its staff dressed as household servants and the guard uniformed as a butler.

The original dock steam train the Colonel Tomline pulled the carriages.