The North Sea "Breeze" - A Change Of Plans

I was intending to make a last pilgrimage to Letheringsett today.  However, the wind had been howling all night and the sea was foaming froth as the waves broke up on the beach, roiling the stones on the beach with loud cracking sounds as if 10,000 billiard balls were bouncing into each other.  And it continued this morning as I was eating breakfast with threats of rain.  So I packed my suitcase for tomorrow's trip to Oxted and went back to bed for a couple of hours - the first time I had done so since my arrival in England.

My mode of transportation from Sheringham to the Weybourne, halfway point of Holt Station on the North Norfolk Railway, was operating on a reduced timetable with the last train leaving at 3:45.  If I missed that trip, it could mean a 5 1/2 mile walk back to Sheringham in addition to the 3 1/2 miles from Letheringsett back to Holt Station. 

Getting up around 11:30, I took a look at the weather.  It was starting to blow itself out and the threat of rain seemed less possible.  So decided to chance the trip to Letheringsett.  If I missed the return train from Holt Station, I could always catch the coasthopper bus.  I was out the door and up to the NNR station for 12 o'clock - only to hear the whistle of the steam engine as it was departing Sheringham station.  I looked to see when the next train was leaving - 13:30.  So much for my pilgrimage to Letheringsett.

I had some books that I wanted to drop off at the Weybourne Station bookstore so, to pass the time, I went to the news stand and picked up 3 newspapers - all with 3 Sudoku puzzles in them - returning back to the station and sitting at a picnic table to pass the time.  In the Norfolk News, there was a nice writeup with photographs of the arrival of the 1899 passenger coach at Holt Station and how it was going to be incorporated into their plans of revitalizing the NNR's education centre using a series of these old coaches.  

The education arm of the parent Midland & Great Northern Preservation Society had managed to get matching lottery grants of £47,000 for their £94,000 project.  Imagine raising that kind of money!  Having seen the number of school kids take the train from Sheringham up to Holt Station, this unique facility is certainly going to be put to good use!

Finally the train arrived - the same J15 0-6-0 that I had taken up to Weybourne shops the day before.  Attached to this train were two dining-car coaches that were full of families celebrating Father's Day.  Wwould this ever be a real treat for Father's Day, eh!?  Travelling back-and-forth up-and-down the line while munching away on brunch and sipping tea and coffee for several hours.  While the crowds poured out of the regular coaches, nobody was getting off these two coaches. They were going to enjoy their brunch!!

In due course, the steam locomotive made its run around the train and coupled onto the dining coaches.  As the train was approaching Weybourne, I noticed that one of the large roll-up doors leading into the Carriage & Wagon shed, the track leading to Wisbech & Upwell Carriage #7 (the one I had worked on yesterday) was open.

 So, disembarking at Weybourne Station, I made my way over to the sheds.  Sure enough, Nigel S had been busy at work drilling more holes into the buffer beams for the link couplers.

As I had some spare time on my hands, I offered to help him with the drilling but he was quite fatigued from his work of the day before.  The day before (Saturday), he and Andy P.  had been working hard at some point west of Weybourne jacking an old 1890s cattle wagon up off the ground and rolling it out so that a lorry could transport the wagon back to Weybourne sheds for restoration.  They had started at 10 am in the morning and didn't finish until after 7:30.

Now this cattle wagon was not any ordinary cattle wagon that shipped cattle off to the meat packers.  This one was used to transport prize bulls around to the different country fairs and to service the farms in between.  The wagon had been taken out of service in the 1920s and had been used as a shed in someone's back yard all this time.

The objective for obtaining all of these wagons was to be able to put together a representative goods (freight) train that would have travelled down the original Midland & Great Northern Railway line around the turn of the century in 1900.  With all of these coaches and wagons that had been purchased and converted into cottages, sheds, and garages, they were having quite a bit of luck in achieving their objective.

Having dropped off some books at the Weybourne book shop and arranging with John G to ship over a golf shirt when it had been embroidered, I caught the 3:30 train back to Sheringham.  I wandered around town a bit before returning to The Lobster for a couple of pints of Strongbow and a dinner of prawns.

Tomorrow we leave Sheringham in the morning making our way back to Oxted via London as we near the end of our journey.