About the Railway: History of the Line Grouping and Nationalisation

As with most railways, the line was heavily used during the First World War, and by the time hostilities ceased in 1918, the whole network was a worn-out wreck. The result of this was that there were calls for the railways to be nationalised, but the government of the day resisted these calls, opting in 1923 to group the many small companies into what became known as the "Big Four": the London, Midland and Scottish (LMS), the Southern Railway, the Great Western, and the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). The Dereham line, along with the rest of the Great Eastern, became part of the latter.

Under the LNER, the line received little in the way of investment, and the line's gradual decline began in the years of the Great Depression in the late 1920s and early 1930s, when passenger numbers began to fall. However, war was once again on the horizon, and Norfolk was in a particularly exposed position, resulting in a massive increase in military traffic; in fact, extra sidings had to be laid at Dereham in order to cope with demand.

As the First World War had done, the latest war exacted a heavy toll, and once again, there were calls for nationalisation. The Labour government of the day, under Clement Atlee, were much less averse to this than the Liberals had been in 1923, and so at midnight on 31st December 1947, a nationwide fanfare of locomotive whistles heralded the demise of private ownership of the nation's railway network. The days of British Railways had begun.

The 1954 Modernisation Plan was introduced in an attempt to revitalise the railways, but by the mid-1950s many wartime restrictions and shortages had eased, and competition from road transport became greater with the increased use of private cars.

Even as late as 1968, there was a great deal of activity at Dereham. All the lineside industries on the left of the photo have now been replaced by a supermarket. Photo: Derrick Plyer

As a result of modernisation, the line witnessed its last scheduled steam-hauled passenger train on the 17th September 1955. Diesel units took over the next day, and the line enjoyed quicker trains and a more frequent service. Steam-hauled freight continued into the early 1960s. By 1960 there was an hourly passenger service to Norwich taking between 32 and 40 minutes. Even so, the increased use of road transport, leading to a decline in passenger numbers, had an impact on the line and it became one of the many railways to be threatened by the "Beeching Report" in 1963.

This led to the withdrawal of the passenger service between Dereham and Wells in 1964. Dereham became an intermediate station between Norwich and King's Lynn, as the line from Wroxham to County School had lost its passenger service as early as 1952. The usual signs associated with rationalisation were soon to be seen, as sidings were taken up and signal boxes demolished as part of an attempt to reduce operating costs. In June 1965, the Wymondham to Dereham section was reduced to single track with a passing loop at Hardingham. More was to come, with the withdrawal of the passenger service from King's Lynn in September 1968 followed by the service between Wymondham and Dereham in October 1969. In less than a decade, a century of railway history had been brought to a terrible end.

Based on an original essay by Owen Stratford.