During the BR steam era a holiday excursion to the Norfolk coast was still very much in fashion and achievable, although the connection with the railways was loosening with increased car ownership. People were also discovering foreign holidays (my first one would have been in about 1965), so the wilting was on the wall for a network of lines which served the Coastal resorts.
Today the national rail network can take you to King’s Lynn but no further. The lovely line to Hunstanton was a late Beeching closure in 1969. You can still reach Sheringham and Cromer on the north Norfolk coast, and finally along the Wherry Lines to Great Yarmouth. That’s your lot, though.
When the UK’s railways were nationalised, in 1948 there was so much more, the legacy, mainly, of two companies, the Great Eastern Railway (GER) and the Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway (M&GNJR). There was the odd incursion by the Norfolk and Suffolk Joint Railway for example, between North Walsham and Cromer Beach. As well as Hunstanton it would have been possible to take a train to the likes of Wells (GBR from Heacham on the Lynn-Hunstanton line or via Fakenham), the delightful Mimdesley-on-Sea on the N&SJR, and Caister-on-Gea on the M&GKE.
The Grouping in 1923 would see the LNER take over from the GER in Norfolk with the LNER/LMS jointly managing the M&GNR until 1936 when the LNER took that one over as well. The 20 years prior to the Second World War saw the LNER struggling with reduced passenger numbers and agricultural business but the war did
