Bure Valley Railway

The second half of our U3A Bury St Edmunds day trip to Norfolk today was a ride on the Bure Valley Railway.

This is what we were told about it.

"The Bure Valley Railway is Norfolk’s longest Narrow Gauge Steam Railway and operates between Aylsham and Wroxham.  It was built on the track bed of part of the former Great Eastern Railway and the nine mile line runs through a stretch of lovely, rural Norfolk, following the River Bure through meadowland and ancient pastures, stopping occasionally at small country villages.

At Aylsham there is a café and a large souvenir and model railway shop.  The workshops are also based there and often open to the public.  At Wroxham there is a gift shop and a large second-hand book shop."

Here are a few of my photos.

Alighting from the coach after the short trip from Blickling Hall, we were met by one of the volunteers, who gave us an introductory talk

Dawn and I enjoyed the air-conditioned café where we had an ice-cream. It was rather hot still,

There is a big model railway shop next door.

Our carriages were waiting at the platform. They are quite tiny.

I walked along to watch our engine couple up. Here is the signal box.

A quick biff and the coupling was secured.

Our engine was "Spitfire".

They have workshops by the platform.

Information about the engines is on display. This was ours...

...and this one arrived just as we were departing.

We were lucky to get a compartment to the 2 of us.

Soon we were out in the countryside

A footpath runs parallel to the track for the full 9 mile distance. After each mile there was a milepost with a different animal carving on each.

We passed a large field of sunflowers.

For some of our route we were quite close to the River Bure.

We passed through several stations but didn't stop at any.

The other end of the line was Wroxham,

And here's where our engine will turn around to pull the train back to Aylsham later.

But now it was time to re-join our coach and head for home. A lovely day out!

You can see more of my photos here on Flickr.