The Mid-Suffolk Light Railway (MSLR) was a standard gauge railway intended to open up an agricultural area of central Suffolk; it took advantage of the reduced construction cost enabled by the Light Railways Act 1896. It was launched with considerable enthusiasm by local interests, and was to build a 50-mile network, but actual share subscription was weak, and the company over-reached its available financial resources. It opened 19 miles of route from Haughley to Laxfield in 1904 to goods traffic only, and income was poor, further worsening the company's financial situation. The Board continued to harbour ambitions to complete the planned network, but crippling interest on loans and capital repayments falling due forced the company into receivership in 1906. Passenger operation was started in 1908, but this too was disappointing. At the grouping of the railways in 1923, the MSLR was still in receivership, and there was a protracted dispute over the liquidation of the debt, but in 1924 the Company was absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway. The poor usage of the line led to its closure in 1952. A heritage group started a railway museum site at Brockford, and as a charity it trades as the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway. The original line and the heritage line are informally referred to as the Middy Line. First railways The first railway through central Suffolk was the Ipswich and Bury Railway: it opened from Ipswich to Haughley and Bury St Edmunds in 1846. The company was absorbed by the Eastern Union Railway in 1847, and in 1848 and 1849 the line was extended to Norwich from Haughley. Further east the East Suffolk Railway was opened in 1859, joining Ipswich to Yarmouth and Lowestoft. The lines were absorbed by the dominant Eastern Counties Railway, and in 1862 the ECR and other lines in East Anglia were amalgamated to form the Great Eastern Railway. The central area between these lines was chiefly agricultural in nature, and industrial development was insignificant. Light railway legislation In 1896 the Light Railways Act was passed; it was intended to foster the construction of low-cost railways by permitting streamlined processes for authorisation, and in some cases lower technical standards for safety equipment. In October 1898 H L Godden of Jeyes and Godden, civil engineers, wrote to parish councils of several villages in Mid-Suffolk, saying that they had a client, (it proved to be B M Kilby,)