Wymondham to Wells Branch
[9] Another occurred at Dereham on 18 January 1896, when the driver of engine 204, a GER Class T26 failed to notice that his train had been split into two sections before attempting to set back into sidings.
On 14 March 1918 the horse pulling the North Elmham milk float bolted, jumped the level crossing gate at County School station and set off along the railway towards the village.
A down train was approaching the station, but managed to stop close to the southern signal box before it was struck by the oncoming milk float, with the horse continuing towards Elmham.
[19] In the early days of the war, Dereham was used as a reception centre for the construction materials used to build the local airfields.
The eastern section of line, between Wroxham and the Themelthorpe Curve, remained open for goods traffic until 1981.
[2] A stub of the western section, between County School and Foulsham remained open for goods until 31 October 1964,[22] being busiest in the sugar beet season.
][26] The final steam-hauled passenger train to Dereham was an RCTS railtour hauled by LNER Class J17 no 65567 in March 1962.
Despite this, increased use of road transport led to a decline in passengers, causing the service to become one of many threatened by the "Beeching Report" in 1963.
The passenger service from King's Lynn ended on 9 September 1968,[29] with the Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway Society operating the 'East Anglian Branch Line Farewell' DMU special on the final Saturday.
Until 1979 a second fertiliser company unloaded their goods in Dereham at the former cattle dock north of Norwich Road level crossing.
Until 1981, when the site of the sidings was claimed for a road-building scheme, coal traffic was being handled at Dereham in a yard accessed from the remains of the King's Lynn branch.
[31] In 2010 the original station building at Wells was a second-hand bookshop and pottery, with the site of the platforms used as an industrial estate known as Great Eastern Way.
[33] A section of the line at Fakenham, from the station yard throat to the bridge over the River Wensum, has been purchased by the Norfolk Orbital Railway for eventual restoration.
[35] At Pensthorpe, the railway line runs along the rear boundary of the nature park,[36] with a section south of Great Ryburgh open as a permissive footpath.
At County School a section of the formation is shared by the North Norfolk Model Engineering Club's 3.5 and 5 inch line.
In January 2019, Campaign for Better Transport released a report identifying the line was listed as Priority 2 for reopening.
[39] By 1880 Dereham boasted a two road wooden locomotive shed and a 45-foot turntable believed to have dated from the late 1860s and known to have replaced an earlier structure.
[41] Before the preservation of the line a number of special trains and demonstration services were operated over the line by the Wymondham & Dereham Rail Action Committee (WyDRAC) and the Railway Development Society (RDS) to help maintain pressure for the restoration of passenger services over the route.
On 21 April 1979 the RDS, WyDRAC and the newly formed Fakenham and Dereham Railway Society chartered a four-car Class 105 DMU set to operate the 'Fakenham Flyer'.
The DMU then operated a shuttle service to Ryburgh, County School, North Elmham and Dereham for Fakenham residents before returning to Norwich.
On 1 December 1979 a Christmas Shopping special operated from Dereham to Norwich, followed, on 26 April 1980, by the 'Breckland Express', formed of a Class 37 and ten coaches, which carried 570 people to London.
The second, operated by the Fakenham and Dereham Railway Society, was a DMU special from Ryburgh to the coastal resort of Clacton, which carried 160 people.
The RDS and WyDRAC chartered a Class 101 DMU for the day and operated a four-train service between Dereham and Norwich.
In 1983 the Eastern Region of British Rail announced that they would ban all special services over freight lines.
[43] In 1984, due to stock shortages and economic factors, only one special was operated, when a four-car Class 101 DMU carried 200 people between Dereham and Clacton.
While the Dereham passengers were in the city, the DMU ran a rail tour to North Elmham, carrying 100 people from Cambridge.
In 1986 a 4-car DMU carried 220 people to Cromer and Sheringham as part of the Dereham Festival and on 21 June 1987 220 people boarded another 4-car DMU bound for Lowestoft, with the train starting from Seaman's grain siding in the goods yard at North Elmham as the station platform had been sold.
