A stub of the western section, between County School and Foulsham remained open for goods until 31 October 1964,[19] being busiest in the sugar beet season.

The passenger service from King's Lynn ended on 9 September 1968,[22] with the Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway Society operating the 'East Anglian Branch Line Farewell' DMU special on the final Saturday.

The 1973 oil crisis led to a meeting being held at Dereham in 1974 by the Railway Development Society in order to petition for the restoration of passenger services between Wymondham and Fakenham.

[25] In 1987 Breckland District Council bought the station at County School, and granted the F&DRS a 999-year lease, inviting the society to re-lay track and relocate to the site.

[25] In response to the approaching closure of the entire branch between Wymondham, Dereham and North Elmham, the Great Eastern Railway (1989) Limited formed to save the line.

The first passenger train, a Mk2 brake coach converted to work as a DBSO with an industrial diesel locomotive, operated at the County School site on 2 November 1991.

In June 1995 Breckland Council informed the receivers that they wished for the GER (1989) Ltd. to give up the lease for County School station so that they could review their operations in respect of the site.

[36] In July 1995, police were called in to investigate the sudden and unauthorised road transfer of two Mid-Norfolk Railway Society Mk 2 coaches to a breaker's yard at nearby Lenwade.

[39] The Mid-Norfolk Railway Preservation Trust (MNRPT) was formed in 1995[40] through the merger of the campaign groups and organisations that had been trying to restore passenger services over the route since 1974.

[42] On 29 November 1995 the section of railway between Yaxham station and a temporary halt built beside a footpath crossing on the Rash's Green industrial estate in Dereham was inspected by Chris Hall, H.M.

[46] The original Dereham station was re-opened to passengers on Saturday 26 July 1997, with the first services being operated by 1890-built Manning Wardle 0-6-0T 'Sir Berkeley', hired from the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway.

Planning consent for the restoration and operation of the remaining section to County School, which does not involve crossing any public rights of way but is to include the retention of a permissive footpath, was awarded in 1992.

[69] Steam also visited the line, although not to operate services, in 2001 when LNER Thompson Class B1 61264 was routed via Dereham for repairs after failing on railtour at Norwich, 20 November.

[78] North Norfolk District Council have listed Fakenham and Great Ryburgh as potential freight hubs, subject to them being linked to the Mid-Norfolk Railway at County School.

Working with Abellio Greater Anglia, the Mid-Norfolk Railway have developed a rolling stock storage facility close to their Kimberley Park station.

Although the line south of Great Ryburgh station is partially in use as a permissive footpath,[125] two bridge decks have been removed and the section between these, running through Sennowe Park, is not open to the public.

The foundations of the waiting room on the up platform were left in place and are being reconstructed to provide passenger facilities at what is now the main passing point on the route.

Large projects have been completed with help from European and Government funding, including restoration of Dereham station building, construction of a locomotive pit and provisions for steam working.

This allowed the railway to restore the station and several associated buildings, including the two railway-owned crossing cottages and a World War II pillbox.

[149] The site in Dereham Yard was cleared and levelled in early 2015 with the spoil moved north of Hoe to widen an embankment using wagons hired for five days from Network Rail.

The grant from the EU Leader Fund's Wensum and Coast Local Area Group amounted to 80% of the project's total construction cost and is dependent on future job creation.

The loop was declared operational in September 2010, although with limited signalling working from a covered ground frame and part of the restored up platform remaining out of use.

Over the next year, the MNR spent £28,000 restoring the station buildings to wartime LNER condition, tidying the grounds and removing scrap material left by the former lessee.

Following months of negotiations in early 2018 with local train operating company Greater Anglia, a £3.25M agreement was reached to provide siding capacity for approximately 30 Class 755 multiple units.

Laying a fan of 5 sidings north of Kimberley Park on the site of an old Ballast Pit to the east of the line at the 4 mile post including a crossover and headshunt.

The inspector limited the use of the line north of Dereham to 12 days per year for passenger trains due to the lack of operational signalling equipment in the Dereham station area and the absence of a Facing Point Lock on the points immediately north of Norwich Road level crossing, this legally means they must be clipped and locked manually prior to use by passenger trains.

Planning permission for the relaying and operation of the line between County School and North Elmham was granted by Breckland District Council on 9 November 1992, with initial tracklaying starting soon after.

These ambitions were aided on 2 January 2008 when Network Rail announced it was giving consideration to allowing construction of a limited use level crossing between the North Norfolk Railway and the Bittern branch line.

In 2001 the railway launched a Bearer bond issue of up to £300,010, offering annual interest at 4% per annum as well as capital repayment after ten years.

The capital projects proposed for this scheme were: In 2018, the railway was awarded £100,000 from the European Union Leader Fund's Wensum and Coast Local Area Group for a new traction and rolling stock maintenance shed.