Wymondham railway station is a stop on the Breckland Line in the

East of England East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sunrise, Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact ...

, serving the market town of

Wymondham Wymondham ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the South Norfolk district of Norfolk, England. It lies on the River Tiffey, south-west of Norwich and just off the A11 road (England), A11 road to London. The pari ...

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

. The line runs between in the west and in the east. It is situated between and Norwich, from London Liverpool Street via . The station is managed by Greater Anglia, which also operates most of the services calling at the station; some

East Midlands Railway East Midlands Railway (EMR; legally Transport UK East Midlands Limited) is a British train operating company owned by Transport UK Group, and is the current operator of the East Midlands franchise. Originally owned by Abellio (transport compan ...

services also stop here. Wymondham is also at a junction with the

Mid-Norfolk Railway The Mid-Norfolk Railway (MNR) is a preserved standard gauge heritage railway, one of the longest in Great Britain. Preservation efforts began in 1974, but the line re-opened to passengers only in the mid-1990s as part of the "new generation" o ...

, a heritage route to ; those services operate from a separate station, , which is approximately one mile away. Wymondham was also once the junction of a

branch line A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Branch lines may serve one or more industries, or a city or town not located ...

to , via . In 2017, the station's bistro was described in a BBC article.

History

The Bill for the Norwich & Brandon Railway (N&BR) received

Royal Assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in othe ...

on 10 May 1844. Work started on the line in 1844 and the line and its stations were opened on 30 July 1845. Wymondham station opened with the line and was, when it opened, situated east of and west of . The line ran from Ely to , in Norwich. The link into Norwich was delayed due to the need to build a bridge over the

River Wensum The River Wensum is a chalk river in Norfolk, England, Norfolk, England and a tributary of the River Yare, despite being the larger of the two rivers. The river is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest and Special Area of Conservatio ...

that kept the river navigable. One month before the N&BR opened a Bill authorising the amalgamation of the Yarmouth & Norwich Railway with the N&BR came into effect and so Wymondham station became a Norfolk Railway asset. In November 1845 Spinks Lane station was permanently closed as the NR determined that having two stations in the village was excessive. With the closure of Spinks Lane the next station east of Wymondham became . On 15 February 1847 Wymondham became a junction station with the opening of the Wymondham to Wells Branch to and . The first station on the branch after Wymondham was , then known simply as ''Kimberley''. An Act of Parliament on 7 August 1862 authorised the amalgamation of the

Eastern Counties Railway The Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) was an English railway company incorporated in 1836 intended to link London with Ipswich via Colchester, and then extend to Norwich and Yarmouth. Construction began in 1837 on the first at the London end. Co ...

, the

Eastern Union Railway The Eastern Union Railway (EUR) was an English railway company, at first built from Colchester to Ipswich; it opened in 1846. It was proposed when the earlier Eastern Counties Railway failed to make its promised line from Colchester to Norwich. T ...

and others, which formed the

Great Eastern Railway The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...

, which had taken place on 1 July 1862. 19 years after the GER was formed the GER promoted a Bill to build a cut-off line from via on the

Great Eastern Main Line The Great Eastern Main Line (GEML, sometimes referred to as the East Anglia Main Line) is a major railway line on the British railway system which connects Liverpool Street station in central London with destinations in east London and t ...

to the Norwich-Ely line at Wymondham. Work started in 1880 and the line opened on 2 May 1881. The difficult economic circumstances after

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

led the Government to pass the

Railways Act 1921 The Railways Act 1921 ( 11 & 12 Geo. 5. c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an act of Parliament enacted by the British government, and was intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grou ...

which led to the creation of the Big Four. The GER amalgamated with several other companies to create the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after London, Midland and Scottish Railway, LMS) of the "Big Four (British railway companies), Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It ope ...

(LNER). Wymondham became an LNER station on 1 January 1923. The line to Forncett closed in 1939. On

nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with priv ...

in 1948 the station and its services were transferred to the

Eastern Region of British Railways The Eastern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948, whose operating area could be identified from the dark blue signs and colour schemes that adorned its station and other railway buildings. Together with the North Eastern Region (w ...

. The Wells branch closed to passengers on 6 October 1969, with freight services continuing until 1989; the section of that line between Wymondham and Dereham forms the

. Upon

privatisation Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

the station and most of its services were transferred to

Anglia Railways Anglia Railways was a train operating company in England, owned by GB Railways and later FirstGroup, that operated the Anglia franchise from January 1997 until March 2004. History The Anglia franchise was awarded by the Director of Passenger Ra ...

on 5 January 1997, with services towards the Midlands were transferred to Central Trains on 2 March 1997. Wymondham Train Station Name Sign

On 1 April 2004 the station and its services were transferred to National Express East Anglia, then known as ''one''. Three years later, on 11 November 2007, the Central Trains franchise was broken up and services between

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

and were transferred to East Midlands Trains. The station's ticket office reopened in 2005. On 5 February 2012 the station and its services were transferred to

Abellio Greater Anglia Greater Anglia (legal name Transport UK East Anglia Limited) is a British train operating company owned as a joint venture by Transport UK Group and Mitsui & Co. It operates the East Anglia franchise, providing the commuter and inter-city se ...

. On 18 August 2019, all services operated by East Midlands Trains were transferred to

, upon the expiry of EMT's franchise. Until 2009 there was a telegraph pole route still in operation between Wymondham and . This was removed gradually during the early part of 2009 and was the last section remaining in England and one of the last remaining in the United Kingdom. In 2012 the local signal box was decommissioned (as indeed were all the boxes on the Breckland Line) and the semaphore signalling was replaced by lightweight LED signals controlled from Cambridge. Wymondham box - geograph

Wymondham is situated between and Norwich, down-line from London Liverpool Street via . The station is managed by Abellio Greater Anglia, which also operates most of the services calling at the station. Some

services also stop at Wymondham.

Mid-Norfolk Railway

Wymondham is also the junction of the Mid-Norfolk Railway, a heritage railway route to , although those services operate from a separate station named which is approximately one mile from Wymondham. is the name of a possible additional new station to be built closer to the mainline station.

Services

Services at Wymondham are operated by Greater Anglia and

. The typical service is one train per hour in each direction between and , operated by Greater Anglia. Most westbound services are extended beyond Cambridge to and from . The station is also served by a limited East Midlands Railway service of three trains per day in each direction between Norwich and via . On Sundays, East Midlands Railway operate four trains per day towards Norwich only.

Rolling stock

Until 2010 three items of

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, Railroad car#Freight cars, freight and Passenger railroad car, passenger cars (or coaches) ...

were displayed on a short section of isolated line laid close to the station, originally intended to house a camping coach. These were Drewry 0-4-0 diesel shunter VF D297 DC 2583 of 1956, disguised as a Class 04 tram locomotive, a British Railways tube wagon, and a SECR 25 ton

brake van Brake van and guard's van are terms used mainly in the UK, Ireland, Australia and India for a Rolling stock, railway vehicle equipped with a hand brake which can be applied by the Conductor (transportation), guard. The equivalent North Americ ...

, formerly used as Stratford crane mess van. The wagons have since been relocated to Whitwell & Reepham railway station, with the locomotive moving to the Bressingham Steam Museum.

Possible developments

The

has proposed extending that line to an adjacent interchange station. The proposed Norfolk Orbital Railway would see services restored between Wymondham and the Norfolk coast, involving use of the track owned by the Mid-Norfolk Railway.An Orbital Railway for Norfolk
/ref>

References

External links

* Wymondham Station's own website
Photographs
From Geograph {{coord, 52.56484, N, 1.11765, E, type:railwaystation_region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(TG114009), display=title Railway stations in Norfolk Former Great Eastern Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1845 Railway stations served by East Midlands Railway Railway stations served by Greater Anglia