Trevor Bright Railway Museum

Welcome to Trevor Bright Railway Museum which is open Tuesdays 10:00 -12:00 and is Free. However, a small donation to help with maintenance is much appreciated. In the museum it has displays "Freight by rail" and Electric Motor Units (EMUs) on our line.  The Trust also provides photo displays for Frinton Station in the booking hall and waiting room has " Farewell to the 321" plus "The 309". Plus other photographic displays.  Private viewing can be arranged by phoning 01255 674678 the Railway Archivist, Tony Barrett.

The museum, named after its co-founder, is situated in the Old Lever Room adjacent to the railway level crossing in Frinton. Primarily concerned with the single line between Thorpe-le-Soken and Walton-on-the-Naze and its impact on the community in that area, there are many interesting artifacts. On the old refurbished levers one can see the bullet holes left after an aircraft attack on Frinton in 1943.

Annually, the museum also offers exhibitions outside its dedicated interest. 

The first train ran to Walton on 17th May 1867 and at this time Frinton was a hamlet consisting of a couple of farms and associated cottages containing around 50 persons and boasting the second smallest Church in the country, certainly not a place to warrant a station or even an official wayside halt. The railway line cut across two lanes as it passed inland of Frinton; these were negotiated with level crossings, one on the site still used at the top of Connaught Avenue and the other, providing access from Kirby Cross, crossed the line where the current roadway bends by the petrol station.

On 8th June 1888 Great Eastern Railway opened a station at Frinton with new Station buildings and a goods yard. In the early 1900's the Kirby Cross road was redirected along the northern boundary of the railway to join the Walton Road, (now Elmtree Avenue), and the level crossing west of the station was abandoned. In the mid 1860s it was the crossing leading from Frinton to what was then the main road from Walton to Colchester, passing through Kirby-le-Soken, which was considered the more important thoroughfare and had the crossing keeper’s cottage and ground-frame levers built next to it.

extracted from '100 Years Of Frinton Railway' by Jeremy M. Russell 1989
Email: enquiries@fwheritage.co.uk
Tel: 01255 861440