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Steam Around North Norfolk by C.G. Beckett Soft Cover Has been folded
Steam Around North Norfolk by C.G. Beckett
Soft cover CREASE on back cover and some back pages
Copyright Becknell Books 1981
32 pages
50 photographs of steam around Hunstanton, Wells, Sheringham, Cromer and Mundesley
One or two black & white photos per page.
Steam railways first entered North Norfolk with the extension of the Dereham-Fakenham branch to Wells in December 1857, largely through the efforts of the Earl of Leicester. In the north-west corner of Norfolk, the Lynn & Hunstanton Directors replaced horse buses with trains in 1862 and built lodging houses, realising the popularity of this coastal stretch following the Prince of Wales' purchase of Sandringham House. The Heacham-Wells West Norfolk Junction Railway opened in 1866 but had little effect on the agricultural area it served.
Not till 1877, when on 26th March Cromer High opened, did railways extend to the north-east part. Little tourist potential was seen and only the extension of the Eastern & Midlands Railway to Cromer Beach in 1887 (from Melton Constable) spurred the GER to provide the direct Liverpool Street Cromer Express, incidentally popularising Cromer Crabs in London! The Midland and the Great Northern railways, taking over the E&MR in 1893 as the M&GN, saw the potential of serving prosperous Midlands holidaymakers. The M&GN extended in 1898 from North Walsham to Mundesley, and, encouraged by royal visits to Poppyland in 1897, joined forces in the form of the Norfolk & Suffolk Joint to avoid further duplication with the GER. The Overstrand route opened in 1906, with link lines between the two companies at Cromer. The structure of North Norfolk's railways, based on holiday traffic and agricultural freight, was then complete.
Wartime activities along the invasion coast broke the tourist and farming routine. The LNER had absorbed the GER in 1923 and the M&GN in 1936. Melton stopped repairing locos in 1937 although remained an important depot. Nationalisation meant little change but the 1950s saw a struggle for survival.
The 1953 floods so damaged the Heacham-Wells line that only parts were ever re-opened but the popularity of Walsingham shrine kept open the Dereham-Wells line until 1964, even after the silting up of Wells harbour. Poppyland holiday traffic declined and closure of the army camps led to changes there. Conductor-guards and through services were tried on the N&S line and fortunes briefly revived with the closure of Cromer High; platform lengthening and a new turntable (in 1954) enabled Beach to take Broadsman and Norfolkman expresses, hauled by some of the largest locos ever to enter North Norfolk. However, falling demand led to North Walsham-Mundesley push-and-pull services in 1953 (the line onto Cromer having closed that year) followed by dmus in 1956. A similar fate was suffered by the Melton-Sheringham line in 1957; named trains were withdrawn in June 1962. On 12th September 1960 the Themelthorpe loop (for freight off the Norwich City-Melton line direct to Wroxham) was opened, heralding final closure of the Melton-Sheringham line in 1964, five years after the closure of the rest of the M&GN.
The Duke of Edinburgh rode the last steam train on 30th May 1963, the royal special going to Weybourne for stabling. The Hunstanton-King's Lynn line operated with dmus until 1969. The rest of the depleted diesel network just survives today.
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