Norwich railway station

History

At one time there were three railway stations in Norwich: Norwich Thorpe, which is the current station still known locally as "Thorpe station"; Norwich Victoria, which was once the terminus for certain passenger services from London until 1916 as well as being a goods station until its demolition in the 1970s; and Norwich City, which was the terminus of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway line from Melton Constable, which closed in 1959.

Early history

The original station was opened by the Yarmouth & Norwich Railway (Y&NR) which was the earliest railway in Norfolk. Its Act of Parliament of 18 June 1842 authorised the issue of £200,000 worth of shares to build a line between the two towns, via Reedham and the Yare valley. The chairman was George Stephenson and the chief engineer was his son, Robert Stephenson. Construction started in April 1843 and the 20.5 miles were completed in a year, with an inspection and inaugural run on 12 April 1844, a ceremonial opening on 30 April 1844, followed the next day by the beginning of regular passenger services.

17 days after the Y&NR started running train services (18 May 1844) Parliament gave the Royal Assent to the Norwich & Brandon Railway (N&BR). This was part of a plan to link the Norwich and Yarmouth with London by linking up with the Eastern Counties Railway line being built from Newport, in Essex, to Brandon, Norfolk. Work started quickly during 1844 and went on into 1845. On 30 June 1845 a Bill authorising the amalgamation of the Y&NR with the N&BR came into effect and Norwich station became a Norfolk Railway asset.

The N&BR line arrived at the station on 15 December 1845 and this offered a route to Shoreditch in London via Cambridge and Bishop's Stortford. The Eastern Union Railway (EUR) was building a line towards Norwich and this led to great rivalry between the EUR and the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR). The ECR trumped the EUR by taking over the Norfolk Railway, including Norwich Station on 8 May 1848. The following year the Eastern Union Railway started services to Norwich Victoria. The opening of Norwich Victoria on 12 December 1849 led to the ECR naming its station Norwich Thorpe. On 27 Aug 1851 Eastern Union Railways services from Ipswich started serving the better placed station of Thorpe.

By the 1860s the railways in East Anglia were in financial trouble, and most were leased to the Eastern Counties Railway, which wished to amalgamate formally but could not obtain government agreement for this until an Act of Parliament on 7 August 1862, when the Great Eastern Railway (GER) was formed by the amalgamation. Actually, Norwich Thorpe and Norwich Victoria became GER stations on 1 July 1862 when the GER took over the ECR and the EUR before the Bill received the Royal Assent.

Great Eastern Railway (1862-1922)

A decade after the GER was formed the latter promoted a new line from Norwich to Cromer. The line was opened on 20 October 1874 and a new station was built and constructed at the junction where the Cromer line left the Yarmouth & Norwich line. The new station, Whitlingham, now stood between Norwich Thorpe and Brundall on the Yarmouth line.

With traffic growing it was apparent a new station was required; this was built to the north of the original station and opened on 3 May 1886 and is the structure surviving today. The old terminus then became part of expanded goods facilities.

The new station was built by Messrs Youngs and Son, of Norwich, from designs by Messrs J Wilson and W. N. Ashbee, the company‘s engineer and architect respectively, at the cost of £60,000. It had a circulating area with a high ceiling and the roof was supported by ironwork supplied by contractor Barnard Bishop and Barnard. The roof extended partly down the platforms which were then covered by canopies for part of their length. There were initially five platforms and engine release roads between platforms 2 and 3 and 4 and 5. These allowed the locomotive to be detached from the train without the need for a shunting locomotive (known as a station pilot) having to shunt the carriages out of the station. The attractive station building was built around a central clock tower (the clock was supplied by Dixons and Co of London Street Norwich) with two storey matching wings either side. A portico was built onto the clock-tower section.

The GER and Norwich Thorpe changed little for the next 30 years until 1916. On 22 May 1916, as a wartime economy measure the GER closed Trowse Station. This meant that the 1st station South of Thorpe on the Ipswich line was Swainsthorpe, while he next station west of Thorpe on the Ely line was Hethersett. The War ended on 11 November 1918 and the following year, on 1 April 1919, the GER reopened Trowse Station. The 1918-1922 Government passed the Railways act 1921 which created the "Big Four" railway companies.

London and North Eastern Railway (1923-1947)

On 1 January 1923 the GER amalgamated with several other railways to form the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) as a result of the Railways Act 1921, which saw many of the 120 railway companies grouped into four main companies in an effort to stem their losses. Norwich Thorpe became an LNER asset.

During World War II the station was bombed in June 1940 and April 1942.

Following the 1947 Transport Act the Big Four railway companies, including the LNER, were amalgamated into the nationalised British Railways (BR).

British Railways (1948-1994)

On 1 January 1948 the nationalisation of Britain's railways saw the operation of Norwich Thorpe station pass to British Railways Eastern Region.

Platform 6 was added in 1954 and in 1955 a modern booking hall was built.

During the late 1950s steam locomotives were phased out across the East Anglian network and replaced by diesel-powered trains.

After Norwich City station was closed in the Beeching cuts, British Rail decided to rename the station back to Norwich. The change took effect on on 5 May 1969.

When the station closed briefly for electrification works in 1986, Trowse, a disused suburban station, was put back into service as the temporary terminus of the line. It closed again when Norwich re-opened. The signalling was also modernised at this time and the track layout simplified.

The privatisation era (1994-present)

Following the Railways Act 1993 ownership of the station passed to a new private company, Railtrack plc, on 1 April 1994. Railtrack was restructured into Network Rail in 2004. The train services to Norwich were privatised later with most services passing to Anglia Railways in January 1997. Services towards the West Midlands were taken over by Central Trains in March 1997. Anglia trains handed over their franchise to National Express East Anglia in 2004. Three years later, on 11 November 2007, the Central Trains franchise was broken up and West Midlands services to Norwich were taken over by the current operator, East Midland Trains. The National Express East Anglia franchise passed to Abellio Greater Anglia on 5 February 2012.

Ticket barriers were installed at Norwich station in January 2009.

Layout

Services

The following services currently call at Norwich during the off-peak:

Accidents and incidents

Engine sheds

Norwich engine shed was located to the south and west of the station. This depot closed in 1982 and was replaced by a new facility at Crown Point which in 2015 is responsible for the maintenance of the main line electric fleet and local diesel multiple units.

Miscellanea

Before carriages were lit by electric lighting they were lit by gas. Norwich had an oil gas works and carriages north of a line from Harwich to Cambridge were supplied with oil gas. The gas was distributed to other stations in a dedicated fleet of ten tank wagons. Use of the facility declined in the 1930s although up until the 1950s catering vehicles were still supplied.

Children's author Arthur Ransome set the opening paragraph of Coot Club (1934) at Norwich Thorpe station. It also appears in the 1971 film The Go-Between.