Old GER crossing keeper's cottage, East Dereham

Image: © Evelyn Simak Taken: 6 Apr 2011

It is situated by Hall Lane level crossing and now owned by the Mid-Norfolk Railway. The windows are in fact boards painted to look like windows. In 1845 Norfolk Railway and Lynn and Dereham Railway authorised to build lines to Dereham and the Dereham to Wymondham line opened to passengers two years later. In 1848 Eastern Counties Railway leases the Norfolk Railway and in 1862 the Great Eastern Railway (GER) was formed. Not quite 100 years later the County School to Wroxham line closed, the passenger service between Dereham and Wells was withdrawn in 1964, and a year later the Dereham to Wymondham line was reduced to single track with a passing loop at Hardingham. In 1968 the Dereham to King's Lynn line was closed and the trackbed lifted and in 1969 the Dereham to Wymondham was closed to passengers. In 1974 the Dereham to King's Lynn line was obliterated by the Dereham bypass. In the same year the Wymondham, Dereham and Fakenham Rail Action Committee was formed, replaced in 1978 by the formation of the Fakenham and Dereham Railway Society. After the closing and the lifting of the trackbeds of the sections linking Great Ryburgh and Fakenham and North Elmham and Ryburgh a Railway centre was set up at one of the former stations: County School. A year after freight service was discontinued over the entire remaining line, the Mid-Norfolk Railway Society formed and in 1995 the Mid-Norfolk Railway Preservation Trust came into existence. The first passenger trains between Dereham and Yaxham were running againin 1996 and by 1999 passenger trains also ran between Dereham and Wymondham. The aim of the MNR Preservation Trust was to buy and restore the then-disused line between the Norfolk market towns of Dereham and Wymondham. They currently own 28km (17.5 miles) of track and trackbed which makes them one of the largest preserved railways in the UK today. In addition to regular passenger services to Wymondham, there are also fairly regular commercial freight trains, as well as the occasional railtour.

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