1241p

Special supplement to e-BLN 1241 BLN Pictorial 19 September 2015

The current issue of BLN has some notes from Member No1 and our Chairman, John Williamson, about the second railtour organised by No1 in the North West, 'The Glazier'
Brakevan Tour on Saturday 25 September 1965. By contrast, our member Rob Davidson has recently been on holiday in Norfolk and has been visiting former Midland & Great
Northern Joint Railway (M&GNR) and Great Eastern Railway (GER) locations in the north of that county.

John has kindly provided us with a number of his own photos of 'The Glazier' together with one of The Middleton Railtour on 7 August 1965, No1's first tour. There is historical detail
on parts of the Glazier's route on web pages by Stephen Wainwright at http://goo.gl/TYTWM2 and John Speller at http://goo.gl/4pjLnV.

Our first picture shows the empty stock (alias five brakevans – remember them?) of the A few weeks later the 'Glazier' pauses at Marsh's Crossing. The haulage on this tour is
Middleton tour arriving at Middleton Junction powered by 2-cylinder Fowler 2-6-4T ex-LMS 3F 'Jinty' 0-6-0T 47298, one of a class of 422 built between 1924 and 1931 to
42343. A recurring theme in these pictures is the magnificent assortment of long coats a Fowler design derived from his work on developing six coupled tank engines for the
worn by the participants! But even without that, they do convey an evocative picture of Midland Railway. Curiously only 15 were built by the LMS (at Horwich), the
industrial Lancashire (as it then was) at a time when main line steam had just a short remainder being split between five independent manufacturers. 47298 escaped the
time to go – in fact when the 'Glazier' ran, less than a thousand days. demise of steam and is currently one of preservation's more well-travelled locos.

The 'Glazier' at the United Glass Siding. With 47298 still chimney first, the tour pauses at St. Helens Shaw Street.

The tour reversed at Old Mill Lane Halt – here it has just arrived. Before departure from Old Mill Lane – is that a short sighted spotter on the van?

Left : Footplate view from the
Jinty at St. Helens Shaw Street
Right : The tour at Pocket Nook
Junction.

Right : Setting a precedent for
many BLS tours in later years, the
Loco Club reach the very end of
the line at Marsh's Sidings.

Right : Journey's end. Back at St.
Helens Junction the passengers
start to make their way home.
Next page : Industrial Lancashire
in 1965 and rural Norfolk in 2015
seem a world apart. Rob
Davidson's photo shows the
Down side building at the former
M&GNR Weybourne station, now
on the North Norfolk Railway
between Sheringham and Holt.





Previous page : A montage of Rob's photos of Weybourne Station. Clockwise from top left : The booking hall, Up side waiting room, Yard ground frame, Down side station
exterior.
The M&GNR, which owned the line now operated from Sheringham to Holt (1987 station) via Weybourne by the North Norfolk Railway, was formed on 1 July 1893 by
amalgamating a number of smaller local lines under the joint ownership of the Midland Railway and the Great Northern Railway, both of which saw it as a way of gaining
access to East Anglian ports and holiday resorts then a virtual monopoly of the Great Eastern Railway. At the grouping it became jointly owned by the LMS and LNER but then
in 1936 the LNER became sole owners. The Cromer to Melton Constable section was one of the last surviving parts of the M&GNR system; west of Sheringham it CP 6 April
1964 and CG 31 December 1964. Sheringham to Weybourne was ROP 13 July 1975 by the North Norfolk Railway. Weybourne station has featured in episodes of 'Dad's Army'
and 'Hi-de-Hi' together with a 1985 adaptation of Dame Agatha Christie's 'The Moving Finger'.

Left : Melton Constable (sometimes called 'The Crewe of Norfolk') was the hub of the M&GNR system in
Norfolk, with lines radiating to Great Yarmouth, King's Lynn and points west, Norwich and Cromer. The
M&GNR's locomotive works was also situated at Melton Constable until the LNER took control in 1936.
Great Yarmouth was the easternmost point on the M&GNR : the photograph below from the BR era
shows (almost unbelievably to 21st century eyes) an ex-GER 2-4-2T, 67176, leaving Yarmouth Beach
station with a Derby-Lowestoft 'express'. (Photo : Ben Brooksbank, shared under Creative Commons
Attribution Share-alike license
2.0).

Right : a B12/3 4-6-0 taking water at Melton Constable while working the 13.11 Peterborough to
Yarmouth Beach. (Photo : Ben Brooksbank, shared under Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike
license 2.0). The line to the right went to Norwich City; the line straight ahead to North Walsham and
Yarmouth Beach.

Next page : The remainder of Rob Davidson's photos come from the former GER line from King's Lynn to Wells-next-the Sea; at one time most through services ran via
Hunstanton (reversing at Heacham once in each direction), a bit like travelling to Wick via Thurso, Norfolk style! Rob's first call along this route was Burnham Market, where
the photo on the next page shows the station house, now providing additional accommodation for a local hotel. All photos from here on are Rob's unless otherwise attributed.





Previous page : A montage of Burnham Market Station.
Top row : Two views of the platform side of the station house, looking towards Heacham.
Bottom row : Two views of the former goods shed; like the station, sympathetically converted to residential use.
A few miles east of Burnham Market is Wells-next-the Sea where the GER lines from
King's Lynn via Burnham Market, and Dereham via Fakenham, converged. The latter is
now occupied by the 10¼" (260mm) gauge Wells & Walsingham Light Railway, at 4 miles
the World's longest 10¼" gauge railway, as far as Walsingham.
Right : The original GER station at Wells-next-the Sea in 2007. Curiously the station is
nowhere near Station Road – it's at the junction of Polka Road and Maryland
https://goo.gl/maps/WWi7M (Photo : Wikimedia user 'Ravenseft', shared under
Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike license 2.0).

Left : A train waiting to leave Wells-next-the-Sea for Walsingham on the Wells &
Walsingham Light Railway. The W&WLR station is nearer Walsingham, just south of the
A149 and the junction with the 'Wells avoider' (!) connecting the Fakenham and King's
Lynn lines. (Photo : Ian Russell via Wikimedia, shared under Creative Commons
Attribution Share-alike license 2.0).

Next page : Sedgeford signal box, three stations west of Burnham Market towards King's Lynn. Despite its half century of disuse, the signal box retains its original frame and is
very much a restoration project for the new owner.





Previous page : A montage of Sedgeford station.
Clockwise from top left : the interior of the signal box with frame in situ, the station buildings looking towards Heacham, the trackbed and station looking towards Wells-next-
the-Sea, the station exterior.
Sedgeford station changed hands earlier in the year and an enthusiastic new owner gave our member permission to have a look round and take photographs. He is putting a
good deal of effort into getting the station and buildings into good order, as can be seen from the photographs, and it looks as if Sedgeford will be joining the growing ranks of
immaculately renovated stations in this part of the world.

Left : The goods yard at Docking was already being redeveloped in 1995, but the goods shed remained.
Compare this view with a more recent Google Street View image at
https://goo.gl/maps/nDtGB
and this rather older map
http://goo.gl/eas5yF.
The road in the photo is the one running north eastwards on the map beneath the words 'Goods Shed'.
(Photo : Ben Brooksbank, shared under Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike license 2.0).

Right : Wells-next-the-Sea station - if not in its heyday, then at least in reasonably busy times. This
was March 1963, with what was then a Brush Type 2, nowadays a class 31, with a freight in the
background.
(Photo : Geoffrey Skelsey (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons).

Next page : The next station towards King's Lynn was Heacham, where the West Norfolk Junction Railway joined the Lynn & Hunstanton Railway's line. The Down side station
building has retained much of its original character in its conversion and now offers railway themed holiday accommodation in the station building and an adjacent BR Mk 1
coach, originally working on the WCML and moving to Heacham after a spell at the Battlefield Line.





Previous page : A montage of Heacham station. Clockwise from top left : railway memorabilia on the extended station building, the side entrance with level crossing gate,
exterior of the original station building, the original station building seen from Station Road.
Heacham was the southern end of the West Norfolk Junction Railway (WNJR), opened in 1866. The WNJR was absorbed into the (King's) Lynn and Hunstanton Railway (L&HR)
in 1872 and the L&HR itself was acquired by the Great Eastern Railway in 1890. Passenger traffic declined on the WNJR section and the intermediate stations CP 2 June 1952
(just in time for the summer season...). Although Burnham Market to Wells nominally CG 31 March 1953, in reality Holkham to Wells was breached by the severe North Sea
floods of 31 January – 1 February and no traffic passed after that. Heacham to Burnham Market CG 28 December 1964, bringing the life of the WNJR to an end.
The Lynn and Hunstanton Railway opened on 3 October 1862 following the promotion of Hunstanton as a seaside resort by the rather splendidly named Henry Styleman Le
Strange, the principal local landowner. The line thrived until the mid-1950s, even retaining through services from London Liverpool Street until 1959. Following the Beeching
Report the line was reduced to 'basic railway' status status (i.e. just a long single track worked as 'one train in section') and CG 28 December 1964 along with Burnham Market.
Passenger services were withdrawn from 5 May 1969. The Royal Train used to run regularly to Wolferton (built in a grand Tudor style), for the Royal family to travel to/from
nearby Sandringham House. http://goo.gl/KdLq2f Since closure
of the line the Queen and her family have had to make do with
King's Lynn station!
Right : the seaside terminus at Hunstanton in its GER heyday, the
photograph being from a postcard used 3 February 1920
although the passengers' attire suggests a significantly earlier
date. The site is now, perhaps inevitably, a car park. (Photo :
M.Bone, public domain via Wikimedia Commons).

Next page : Our member's last 'port of call' was the station at Dersingham, about a third of the way from Heacham to King's Lynn. The photo shows the station house, once
again in residential use. Since closure in 1969, the platform and outbuildings have been in use as offices and stores for a builder's merchant, while the main station building has
been converted into a private residence.





Previous page : A montage of Dersingham station. Clockwise from top left : the lamp room, the signal box, Down side station building, view from the platform ends looking
towards King's Lynn.
Right : The BR Mk 1 coach, M13318, now stands on its own length of track at Heacham
station and is in use as holiday accommodation. The owners' web site is at
http://goo.gl/w3xRTY.

Left: And finally – a mystery picture (with thanks to Charles Butcher, webmaster of
http://www.stanhoe.org). After some discussion with Charles, who looks after a
website devoted to the village of Stanhoe, once an intermediate station on the WNJR,
we concluded that the photo below could be of Sedgeford station. The track layout and
the buildings concur with old 6" OS maps and Rob Davidson's photos, but the signal box
is on the opposite side of the line from where it is now. Can anyone shed any more light
on this? Is this Sedgeford, and if so, when did the signal box surreptitiously sneak across
to the north side of the line?