Wells Harbour Railway


The Wells Harbour Railway is a gauge railway at Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, England. It is long, running between Wells Harbour and Pinewoods. Diesel locomotives are used.

History

The Wells Harbour Railway was established in 1976 by Roy Francis. It opened in July of that year. There are two stations, Harbour and Pinewood, located at the town and seaward ends of the line respectively. At the latter there is a caravan park and beach. The railway provides an alternative to the long walk between Wells next the Sea and the beach at Wells Harbour. A bus route once served Pinewoods, but this was withdrawn. The engine shed is located at Pinewoods.
Over 80,000 passengers were carried in the first two years of operation. In January 1978, a storm washed away over of track. The railway was rebuilt and reopened in July that year. In 1980, Francis sold the Wells Harbour Railway and established the Wells and Walsingham Light Railway on part of the trackbed of the dismantled Wymondham to Wells line.
The railway was sold again in 1988, the new owners finding that it was in poor condition. In 1998, new carriages were supplied by Alan Keef of Ross on Wye. A new steam-outline diesel locomotive was supplied by Keef as the new carriages were too heavy for Weasel to pull. The railway was sold after the 2000 season, with the new owners improving the track and Pinewoods station. Another new locomotive was supplied in 2005.

Operation

The Wells Harbour Railway operates at weekends from Easter to the May Day bank holiday, then daily until the end of September, using a published timetable. It then operates at weekends until the end of October. The railway claims to hold the record of being the first railway of its gauge to operate a scheduled timetable passenger service.

Rolling stock

Current locomotives

Former locomotives

Carriages

The original carriages used on the line were made by David King, who was the engineer who built Edmund Hannay. They were two open carriages and two covered carriages with wooden bodies on steel underframes. In 1998, four new covered carriages were made by Alan Keef. These have steel bodies on steel underframes.