Editing Bure Valley Railway (section)

== History ==
{{Refimprove|section|date=November 2022}}[[File:RHDR No 1 Green Goddess Aylsham.jpg|thumb|left|Aylsham station's large train shed, with visiting RHDR No. 1 'Green Goddess'.]]
[[File:Steel girder bridge over the River Bure - geograph.org.uk - 1272945.jpg|thumb|left|This girder bridge takes the Bure Valley Railway over the River Bure. The bridge is 105 feet long and by far the largest bridge on the line.]]
[[File:Bure Valley Railway track - geograph.org.uk - 453957.jpg|thumb|left|Bure Valley Railway track approaching Aylsham, showing how the formation is split between the railway and permissive footpath.]]
[[File:Coltishall Bure Valley train geograph-3854771-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg|thumb|left|Bure Valley train at Coltishall, 1994.]]
[[File:House beside the railway line - geograph.org.uk - 1059246.jpg|thumb|left|Belaugh Green, one of the unprotected, [[Level crossings in the United Kingdom|open level crossing]]s on the line.]]

The railway is built on part of the trackbed of the [[East Norfolk Railway]] (ENR). The ENR started in 1877 when the East Norfolk Railway opened from [[Norwich, England|Norwich]] to [[Cromer]], with an extension from [[Wroxham]] to [[Aylsham]] in 1880. The western extension was planned by Edward Wilson & Co. in 1876, with the line being constructed by William Waddell at a cost of £44,000, initially employing 100 men, 10 horses and 43 waggons.{{sfn|Joby|1975|p=29}}

The ENR was taken over by the [[Great Eastern Railway]] in 1882, although they had always held a controlling interest in the company,{{sfn|Joby|1975|p=25}} with the GER completing the line's extension to [[County School railway station|County School]] on the [[Norfolk Railway]]'s line.  The GER was amalgamated into the [[London & North Eastern Railway]] in 1923, and the [[rail nationalisation|railway was nationalised]] in 1948.

On 15 September 1952 the [[passenger train|passenger]] service stopped, and the line between Foulsham and Reepham was closed to all traffic, but the [[freight train|freight]] service continued on the remainder of the line.{{sfn|Joby|1975|p=43}} {{stnlnk|Buxton Lamas}}, as it was then known, closed for goods in 1964, and Aylsham and [[Coltishall]] in 1974.

Freight trains continued to run over the line after this for two principal sources of traffic. From September 1960, the line west of Aylsham via [[Cawston, Norfolk|Cawston]] and [[Reepham, Norfolk|Reepham]], which originally went to the junction at [[County School railway station|County School Station]], instead turned south via a new curve at Themelthorpe to join a fragment of the old [[Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway|Midland and Great Northern]] system to reach {{stnlnk|Lenwade}} and {{stnlnk|Norwich City}}.

[[Coal]] traffic continued to be carried from {{stnlnk|Norwich Thorpe}} via [[Aylsham]] to Norwich City There was also regular traffic from Lenwade in the form of concrete building components.

This traffic ended in 1981 and the line through Aylsham formally closed on 6 January 1982.  A weed-killing train ran in 1983 and track-lifting trains ran the following year.