Mid-Norfolk Railway
Date Operator Motive Power Notes
17 June 1998 EWS 47241 'Halewood Silver Jubilee ' First trial MOD train , including inspection saloon
8 July 1998 EWS 37263 First MOD train , composed VGA wagons
9 July 1998 EWS 47298 MOD train , composed Warwell and Warflat wagons
17 July 1998 EWS 37707 MOD train , composed VGA , Warwell and Warflat wagons
5 October 1998 EWS 47200 ' Herbert Austin ' MOD train , composed VGA wagons
8 October 1998 EWS 47312 'Parsec of Europe ' MOD train , composed Warwell and Warflat wagons
15 October 1998 EWS 47316 MOD train , composed Warwell and Warflat wagons
23 April 1999 EWS 37248 ' Midland Railway Centre ' + 37178 MOD train , composed VGA , Warwell and Warflat wagons
20 January 2002 EWS 47786 ' Roy Castle OBE ' Transfer of fire damaged 86252 from Norwich
26 September 2008 EWS 66105 Trial MOD train
8 January 2009 DB Schenker 66157 MOD train , composed VGA , Warwell and Warflat wagons
8 January 2009 DRS 37087 Collecting Network Rail stoneblower
28 November 2009 DB Schenker 66201 MOD train , composed VGA , Warwell and Warflat wagons
Present day -- Network Rail connections
Trainload of Scimitar light tanks . DRS Class 37 and Rail Head Treatment Train at Dereham ( 2008 ) 90010 at Dereham in May 2014 . Class 745/1 units stored on the Mid-Norfolk Railway prior to entering service . Mid-Norfolk Railway facilitates commercial freight trains , using its connection with the National Rail network at Wymondham . Dereham yard has been used as a servicing depot by Direct Rail Services since 2007 and for storage of Network Rail track plant since 2008 . [ 73 ] [ 74 ] The road vehicle loading ramp in Dereham yard is used by mainline train operators to load damaged rolling stock onto road vehicles . Such rolling stock usually comes at night ( via the connection with the mainline at Wymondham ) at slow speed ( sometimes on wheelskates ) from Crown Point TMD in Norwich ( where no road-rail loading facilities are available ) for onward road movement to specialist repair facilities around the country . The line has also been used to carry equipment for army units based at Robertson Barracks or undergoing training at the Stanford Training Area , most recently in January 2009 . [ 75 ] [ 76 ] Operation of these trains involves both resident and mainline locomotives . [ 77 ]
The Mid-Norfolk Railway (MNR) is a preserved standard gauge heritage railway, one of the longest in Great Britain. Preservation efforts began in 1974, but the line re-opened to passengers only in the mid-1990s as part of the New Generation of heritage railways. Regular steam and diesel services run through the centre of Norfolk between the market towns of Wymondham and Dereham via , and , and occasional sightseer services continue north of Dereham passing the nearby village of Hoe, where there is no station, to the limit of the operational line at Worthing. The line is periodically used for commercial freight operations and staff instruction for mainline railway companies. The MNR own and operate the majority of the former Wymondham-Fakenham branch line of the Norfolk Railway. The branch opened in 1847, was closed to passengers in stages from 1964 to 1969 as part of the Beeching cuts, and was finally fully closed to goods traffic in 1989. (The northern section of this line, to Wells, was built by the Wells and Fakenham Railway and part of this has been operated by the Wells and Walsingham Light Railway since 1982.) The MNR is owned and operated by the Mid-Norfolk Railway Preservation Trust (MNRPT, a charitable company limited by guarantee), and is mostly operated and staffed by volunteers. The company owns a further of line, as far as County School railway station, which will make it the third longest heritage railway in England once restoration is complete. The Mid-Norfolk Railway has had a long-term, published ambition to restore the railway as far as Fakenham. Although the MNRPT Chairman informed North Elmham Parish Council in 2016 that County School would be the final terminus of the MNR, the railway still retains the eventual intention of reaching Fakenham.