Aylsham railway station is located in the town of Aylsham in

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

and is the northern terminus of the

Bure Valley Railway The Bure Valley Railway is a minimum gauge visitors' attraction in Norfolk, England, Norfolk, England. It was created on the original disused full-gauge bed of a defunct passenger service to incorporate a new, adjacent pedestrian footpath. The ...

, a narrow gauge operation which reuses some of the trackbed of a former

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

branch line that closed in 1977. The station occupies the same site as the former

Aylsham South railway station Aylsham South railway station served the town of Aylsham in Norfolk from 1880 to 1981. The period station buildings were subsequently demolished in 1989 to allow for the construction of Aylsham railway station, the northern terminus of the Bur ...

, which served the town between 1880 and 1952.

History

Aylsham South railway station, which first occupied this site, opened in 1880. It was operated by the

East Norfolk Railway The East Norfolk Railway was a pre-grouping railway company operating a standard gauge 25 mile, mostly single track, railway running between Norwich Thorpe railway station and Cromer in the English county of Norfolk. It opened in 1874, reachi ...

, then the

Great Eastern Railway The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...

, and became part of the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

during the

Grouping Grouping may refer to: * Muenchian grouping * Principles of grouping * Railways Act 1921, also known as Grouping Act, a reorganisation of the British railway system * Grouping (firearms), the pattern of multiple shots from a sidearm See also ...

of 1923. The station passed into the

Eastern Region of British Railways The Eastern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948, whose operating area could be identified from the dark blue signs and colour schemes that adorned its station and other railway buildings. Together with the North Eastern Region ( ...

nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

in 1948. In 1952, the passenger service ended and the freight service was subsequently discontinued in 1977. The fine period station buildings stood after closure until 1990, when the Bure Valley Railway opened. Upon taking over the site, the original buildings were deemed unsuitable for the new project and were demolished.Norfolk By Rail.
/ref> The new ''Aylsham railway station'' was constructed on the site and opened on 10 July 1990.

Facilities

The station has three platforms. Platform 3 sees only occasional passenger use, but is used for stock storage. Platforms 1 and 2 are in regular use; both are linked to a central locomotive release road. These two platforms and the central release road are all supplied with terminal

headshunt A headshunt (or escape track in the United States) is a short length of track provided to release locomotives at terminal platforms, or to allow shunting to take place clear of main lines. Terminal headshunt A 'terminal headshunt' is a short ...

s, all of which are linked via a complex tri-directional set of

points Point or points may refer to: Places * Point, Lewis, a peninsula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Point, Texas, a city in Rains County, Texas, United States * Point, the NE tip and a ferry terminal of Lismore, Inner Hebrides, Scotland * Point ...

. Platforms 1 and 2, and the release road, are all protected by an overall station roof. These platforms were originally numbered 2, 3 and 4, but were renumbered as 1, 2 and 3, as the original platform 1 had been subsumed into the new Aylsham locomotive depot. The modern station buildings contain a cafeteria, booking office, staff room, shop, administrative offices, toilets and entrance foyer. Additionally, a substantial wooden building has been set up on platform 3 by the supporters association, the ''Friends of the Bure Valley Railway''. There is a large car park. Alongside the station is the railway's Aylsham Locomotive Depot, a large three-track engine shed, capable of housing all the railway's locomotives. Behind the locomotive depot is the railway's main engineering workshop, equipped to carry out running repairs or full-scale locomotive overhauls. This facility also contains locker rooms, wash rooms and administrative offices for the railway's engineers. The operating facilities of the station also include a turntable, several sidings (used primarily for engineering vehicles) and facilities for fuelling and watering locomotives. There is a signal box, which contains the main line control centre, from which computerised control and radio communication are used to operate the

block section Absolute block signalling is a British signalling scheme designed to ensure the safe operation of a railway by allowing only one train to occupy a defined section of track (block) at a time. This system is used on double or multiple lines where ...

system of train control.

References

* * *

External sources

Station on navigable O.S. mapBure Valley Railway websiteFriends of the Bure Valley Railway website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aylsham Railway Station Heritage railway stations in Norfolk Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1990 Aylsham