It is a strip of scrubby land with the liability of two long disused bridges. It can’t be used for anything other than a railway and it has very little intrinsic value.
But it does provide a route by which the railway can be brought back to Fakenham, Norfolk.
Campaigners want to buy the land, if it goes for a reasonable price, so the Norfolk Orbital railway can become a reality.
Director Trevor Bailey said at stake was a small piece of former railway land at Pudding Norton, Fakenham which was up for auction in February, at a guide price of between £3,000 and £5,000.
A large section of the site, which was part of the Wymondham-Dereham-Fakenham-Wells line until closure in the 1960s, is legally protected as a rail route for the future in the county council’s plans.
The Norfolk Orbital Railway aims eventually to use former railway trackbeds to link the existing Mid Norfolk Railway (Wymondham-Dereham) and North Norfolk Railway (Sheringham-Holt) which, together with the highly successful Norwich-Sheringham Bittern line and another Network Rail link (Wymondham-Norwich), would create an orbital route through a large part of Norfolk. This is a long-term plan,” explains another NOR director Derek Haynes.
“But we have already commissioned major professional engineering and traffic studies which demonstrate that the project is fully feasible and that the Sheringham-Fakenham-Wymondham-Norwich section would attract even more passengers than the Bittern Line, which is itself probably the best performing branchline in the country.”
An initial link for through running between Network Rail’s Bittern Line and the North Norfolk Railway at Sheringham has already been given official approval and is expected to be built later this year. It will restore track that was lifted over forty years ago.
The NOR is working closely with the Mid Norfolk Railway in seeking to acquire the site
If you would like to donate towards the purchase , please send cheques, (made payable to the Holt, Melton Constable & Fakenham Railway Company) to Holt, Melton Constable & Fakenham Railway Company, The Railway Institute, Melton Constable, Norfolk NR24 2DA
More information: www.norfolk-orbital-railway.co.uk