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Wherry Lines - Norwich to Great Yarmouth & Lowestoft Modernised V1

****Key facts****







Norwich to Great Yarmouth via Acle - 18.4 miles



Norwich to Great Yarmouth via Reedham - 20.6 miles



Norwich to Lowestoft - 23.5 miles



Total length - 44.1 miles



Maximum speed - 100mph for passenger/75mph for freight



Era represented - 2025 +







****History****







Opening in 1844, the Norwich to Great Yarmouth railway, via Reedham, was the first



railway to be seen in Norfolk. Three years later, the branch from Reedham to



Lowestoft followed and it was not until 1883 that the final piece of the jigsaw fell into



place with the construction of the alternative route via Acle to Great Yarmouth.







Until 1923, this railway was operated by the Great Eastern Railway company and it
was their fear of a competitor attempting to reach Great Yarmouth which resulted in
the construction of the later route via Acle. The name of the line, Wherry Lines,
originates from the Norfolk wherries which were once important in transporting
goods and people around the broads before roads and railways became widespread.







Fast forward to the 1980s and the ***Yarmouth*** route was thriving with summer
services from all parts of the country, such as London, Liverpool, Manchester &
Newcastle (the Lowestoft branch never attracted as much traffic so will be kept to the
side for the time being). Come the early 1990s however, cheap package holidays
abroad were starting to take hold and the demand to visit Yarmouth as a holiday
destination steadily dropped. As a result, these direct services were gradually
reduced and by the time of privatisation in 1996, only the London trains and a couple
of services from Liverpool Lime Street remained. By 2004, the Liverpool trains were
withdrawn, resulting in Yarmouth only being served directly from London & Norwich.







As loco-hauled services progressively disappeared around the country, these London
trains held strong and, as a result, started to attract quite a following from
enthusiasts. With the electric hauled set from London being dragged from Norwich
to Great Yarmouth by a class 47, a run round procedure was required at Yarmouth to
haul the set back to Norwich - something quite rare to witness by the end of the
2000s. This continued until 2014 and remained a popular day out for enthusiasts but,
come early 2015, class 47s were being withdrawn by DRS in favour of class 37s. These
locos were unable to haul the 8 or 9 coach sets from London due to having an
insufficient ***ETH index*** (the amount of electricity that can be supplied for on-train
systems such as air conditioning and heating), so as a result, direct services from
London were withdrawn and, after many decades, Yarmouth has been left with no
direct services beyond Norwich. This might all sound rather gloomy but a new era
was arriving on the ***Wherry Lines*** and enthusiasts were in for a right treat.







So far, only direct services to Yarmouth from far off places have been mentioned but
local services from Norwich to Yarmouth & Lowestoft have also offered plenty of
interest in recent years. From the late 1950s, diesel multiple units (DMUs) replaced
steam-hauled local services and this largely remained the case until the early 1990s.
Since then, Norwich Crown Point depot has intermittently had shortages of DMUs so
to combat this, they cobbled together a set of 3 of 4 coaches, plus a locomotive, to
cover. Usually the locomotive in question would be a class 47 but in the early years, it
was not unknown for a class 31 or 37 to do the honours. This loco-hauled train soon
became known as the ***short set*** due to its short appearance in comparison to the
London trains, though in later years, it has had a second locomotive added to
facilitate top and tail operation, which removes the requirement to run round. This
arrangement continued until April 2014, but with the mk3 coaches undergoing
refurbishment and experiencing lower availability as a result, mk2 coaches were
provided instead from DRS, who had already been supplying class 47 locomotives for
the set since 2009. As mentioned previously though, with increasing reliability issues,
the class 47s were falling out of favour and by June 2015, class 37s had arrived to
operate the short set. No longer on an ad-hoc basis depending on DMU availability
but scheduled workings from Monday to Friday and extra Saturday services during








For now though, enjoy its delights in the virtual world!



The Line has had the Great Yarmouth to Norwich Via Reedham line electrified with 25kv ac OLE. All so the track changed to the WCML Trent Valley track where work has started on at area.