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Great Eastern Railway (1873-1922)

The railway through the site of Goodmayes station was built in 1839 by the Eastern Counties Railway as the first part of what was later to become the Great Eastern Main Line. Trains initially ran between Mile End and Romford.

By the 1860s, the railways in East Anglia were in financial trouble and most were leased to the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR). Although they wished to amalgamate formally, they could not obtain government agreement for this until 1862, when the Great Eastern Railway (GER) was formed.

As London grew, developers starting acquiring land to build new properties and it was construction of the Mayfield Estate by Archibald Corbett that was the reason for opening Goodmayes. It was originally going to be named Mayfield Park but the name was changed shortly before opening and the station building was located in Stoops Lane.

The GER realised that the two track main line was not enough to cope with the new suburban and longer distance traffic, and still provide a reliable service for the minor stations. The answer was a programme of quadrupling (providing two additional tracks) along the route and this work took place in phases. Goodmayes station was opened by the Great Eastern Railway on 8 February 1901. The station was provided with four platforms with the local services calling at the two northernmost platforms and the other two being used by longer distance trains few of which called at Goodmayes.

Signalboxes at Goodmayes East and Goodmayes West were provided at this time.

A small 2-siding goods yard located on the up side of the main line was opened on 3 March 1903 handling domestic coal.

Table 298 of the Bradshaw's timetable guide of July 1922 shows Goodmayes to have a regular services of trains from Liverpool Street or Fenchurch Street which terminated at Romford or Gidea Park.

In 1923, the GER amalgamated with other railways to form the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER).

London & North Eastern Railway (1923-1947)

A typical LNER Suburban train, GER section of the LNER (CJ Allen, Steel Highway, 1928)

During this period, local stopping trains were generally hauled by LNER Class N7 locomotives on trains of corridor type carriage stock.

Plans were drawn up in the 1930s to electrify the suburban lines from Liverpool Street to Shenfield at 1,500 V DC and work was started on implementing this. However, the outbreak of World War II brought most of the project to a temporary halt and it was not until 1949 that the scheme was completed.

During World War II the station was damaged by bombs dropped by the German Luftwaffe as it was on a strategic rail route.

British Railways (1948-1994)

On 1 January 1948, following nationalisation of the railways, Goodmayes became part of the British Railways Eastern Region. The electrification scheme and its associated works were finished and, from February 1949, the Class 306 EMUs operated the service to steam timings with an accelerated all-electric schedule being introduced in September 1949.

On 10 July 1949 the signalboxes at Goodmayes East and Goodmayes West were closed as part of the associated re-signalling scheme and replaced by single signal box which controlled the new colour light signalling.

The 1500 DC electrification system was converted to 25/6.35 KV AC operation between 4 and 6 November 1960.

The two-siding goods yard was closed on 31 July 1962.

The railway was sectorised in 1982 and Goodmayes and the trains calling at it became part of the London and South-East sector. On 10 June 1986 this was rebranded to become Network South East which was responsible for working services up to privatisation.

The privatisation era (1994-present day)

In April 1994, Railtrack became responsible for the maintenance of the infrastructure; it was succeeded by Network Rail in 2002.

Between privatisation on 1 April 1994 and 4 January 1997, the station was operated by a non-privatised business unit. Since then, passenger services calling at the station have been operated by the following franchises:

• First Great Eastern 5 January 1997 – 31 March 2004
• National Express East Anglia 1 April 2004 – 4 February 2012
• Abellio Greater Anglia between 5 February 2012– 30 May 2015
• MTR TFL Rail between 31 May 2015 and 23 May 2022, after which the line was rebranded as the Elizabeth Line who are the current operator.

In 1997 the 1949 Goodmayes signal box was closed and the area was subsequently controlled by Liverpool Street.

Class 315 EMU at Goodmayes

In 2017 new Class 345 trains entered operation on the Shenfield – London Liverpool Street route as the new Crossrail service partially opened. The four platforms at Goodmayes have been extended from their current length of 184 metres (201 yd) to accommodate the new trains, which are over 200 metres (220 yd) long at their full nine carriage length. The station also received three new lifts providing access to all platforms, improved lighting and signage, help points, and new ticket machines and gates within a refurbished ticket hall.

The Class 315 trains were finally taken out of service in 2022. Through services to central London, Heathrow Airport and Reading started running on the Crossrail line (rebranded the Elizabeth line) on 22 November 2022.

Yards and connections

Down Side

Prior to 1880 a short line extended from the main line and curved away under the High Road to a gravel pit. This line was still extant in 1914 connecting to the east end of the down yard at this time. but had been removed by 1938 when housing covered the area.

In 1889 approval was given to develop sidings on the down side for stabling and marshalling of suburban carriages and for remarshalling of Colchester line goods traffic. The coexistence of the passenger and goods traffic did not last long and passenger traffic relocated to carriage sidings north of Ilford.92'25

There was an extensive freight yard for goods traffic on the down side of the line which extended from the station building a considerable distance towards Chadwell Heath. This was a busy yard with a signal box controlling movements, and after 1900 a turntable and water tower were added, and part of the yard was given over to Permanent Way maintenance. The yard closed in 1962 and after the tracks were removed the land was grassed until replaced by a supermarket, other shops and housing.

Up Side

Early in the 20th Century further capacity for goods traffic was required and a large yard was constructed on the up side of the line extending as far as Kinfauns Road. The western entry to this was just north of the station and shared access with the two-siding goods yard while the eastern entry was just west of Chadwell Heath

Associated with this yard was the Becontree Estate Railway which built to transport materials that were used in construction of the Becontree Estate, although this was removed after construction of the estate was completed.

The yard closed to regular traffic in 1971 and any remaining traffic was transferred to Temple Mills Yard near Stratford. It was used sporadically for short term goods traffic and storage of withdrawn rolling stock.