Eastern Counties Railway

The Eastern Counties Railway was an English railway company incorporated by an 1836 Act of Parliament to build a line linking London with Ipswich, Colchester, Norwich and Yarmouth. Construction began in 1837 and its first nine mile segment, from Mile End to Romford, opened on June 20, 1839, and the company went on to acquire several regional railways including the Northern and Eastern Railway, the Eastern Union Railway and the Norfolk Railway, eventually operating 565 miles of track across East Anglia. In 1862 it merged with several other companies to form the Great Eastern Railway, ending 23 years of independent operation.