[3] Notwithstanding its rural location, the station became an important railway centre with lines converging from all directions providing connections to key East Anglian towns such as King's Lynn, Norwich, Cromer, Fakenham, Yarmouth and Lowestoft.

The project was taken over by Wilkinson & Jarvis, civil engineers contractors who turned the branch line idea into a 'through' railway from Yarmouth and Norwich to King's Lynn.

One of their employees was William Marriott who became engineer to the Eastern & Midlands Railway in 1883; he would later play a key role in the development of Melton Constable where he lived for some years.

[7] To attract and retain workers to such an isolated location, the railway company engaged a contractor to construct housing in the nearby parish of Burgh Parva.

[8] Architecturally, the red-brick and slate-roofed terraced housing had more in common with an East Midlands industrial town, with narrow streets and small front gardens which gave the area a particular character.

[9] The M&GN's gasworks at the bottom of Melton Street lit the establishment, with the coal needed for the plant being supplied by rail via a siding connection from the station's goods yard headshunt.

Access to the platform was via a covered staircase which descended from an adjacent road overbridge to reach a long, single-storey station building containing the booking office and refreshment room.

The main station building was constructed using yellow brickwork, with the exterior woodwork painted in a two-tone green and cream colour when the London and North Eastern Railway took over operation of the M&GN.

The platform was largely covered by a long canopy supported by metal spandrels bearing the initials "CNR", a reference to the failed Central Norfolk Railway scheme.

[18] Further rationalisation in 1945 left Melton Constable as a wagon sheet works, whilst declining traffic served to highlight the duplication of facilities between the M&GN and other Great Eastern lines.