Wymondham To Wells Branch - Charter Trains

Charter Trains

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. By the line's closure, twenty special trains and carried over 5,000 passengers. The first of these was a 6-car DMU service between Dereham and Norwich, which operated on 8 April 1978. This special carried 330 passengers from the branch and into the city, while the outward journey to Dereham carried 200 people. This included a party of ramblers, who used the service as far as Thuxton. The majority of the passengers were local.

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'. This train left Norwich carrying 200 people, picking up a further 40 at Dereham, before heading to Fakenham. The DMU then operated a shuttle service to Ryburgh, County School, North Elmham and Dereham for Fakenham residents before returning to Norwich. 440 people were carried, most of them local people. This was the first passenger train at Fakenham since the line closed, and proved to be the last such train as the line was closed the following year.

A special service, using a 4-car DMU, was operated from Dereham to Lowestoft on 22 July 1979 – with tickets being sold from the former bookstall at Dereham station. 260 people boarded the train at Dereham, with 70 more joining at the intermediate stations on the route. The stock movement to Dereham also carried 22 members of a local cycle club and their bicycles. 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. On 27 July, the 'Broadsman' carried 250 passengers between Dereham and Sheringham.

Three trains were operated in 1981. The first, on 30 May, was a 9 coach Class 37-hauled special to York which carried 455 people. 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 third event in 1981 was 'Rail Day' on 19 September. The RDS and WyDRAC chartered a Class 101 DMU for the day and operated a four-train service between Dereham and Norwich. All crossings were manned, and tickets were issued on the train by conductor guards. 600 passengers used the service, with even the 07.27 service from Norwich to Dereham carrying 5 passengers. On 15 May 1982 a Class 37 and nine coaches left Dereham bound for Matlock in the Derbyshire Dales, carrying 300 people. On 20 June the Fakenham and Dereham Railway Society chartered a DMU from Ryburgh to Norwich, where it joined a DMU special from Sheringham before continuing together to the Nene Valley Railway. 200 passengers travelled on this special. The final train of 1982 ran on 22 August, and was a Class 105 DMU carrying 170 people to Felixstowe.

In 1983 the Eastern Region of British Rail announced that they would ban all special services over freight lines. After a campaign by the RDS they agreed to allow a maximum of two excursion trains per year to use these routes. On 1 October, 1983 400 people boarded a Class 31-hauled ten coach train bound for Portsmouth. Although the Class 31 broke down at Woking, the delayed service made the complete journey. 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. In 1985 a Class 101 DMU carried 100 passengers from Dereham to Cambridge. 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.