The line between Wroxham and Aylsham is a nine mile stretch of the old branch line from Wroxham to County School. Most people think of Norfolk as "flat", in fact it is far from this and gently undulates between the river valleys. Being a branch line the original builders have had to smooth out these undulations and in the case of our line it was built with a ruling gradient of 1/90 originaly. When the line was lifted in 1985 and the BVR was relaid in 1989 some changes had to be made to gradients in a few places. One area is the approach to Aylsham which use to be over a minor road with a level crossing. The minor road became the Aylsham by-pass and the railway had to dive under it through a new 200yd tunnel followed by a quarter mile climb at 1/75 up to Aylsham. At the other end of the line from where the original line joined the Norwich - Cromer line a new formation was built at a gradient of 1-70 down to the new BVR station. The only truly flat area on the whole of the BVR is the platform roads at Aylsham. A full gradient chart can be found in "Technical stuff" on this site.

Aylsham is the main base for the Bure Valley Railway and contains the workshops, offices, large free carpark, a large shop and 90 seat resturant. Most trains start from Aylsham. The whole of the BVR is very disabled friendly, there are no steps to speak of and our facilities for the carriage of wheelchair bound passangers are second to none. The town which is a few minutes walk is a typical old fashioned Norfolk market town with many interesting shops and buildings. The foot/cycle path which starts at Wroxham, the other end of the line, and follows alongside the railway continues through Aylsham and follows the old trackbed right back to Norwich.

Not a lot of activity at the moment as most of the staff are out doing driving turns. Whilst not driving the steam brakes are being progressed and the air braking on the brake vans assembled with a few minor repairs thrown in for good measure

An extended weekend with all the locos and rolling stock running for the benefit of the public and photographers. Several people made their best efforts to travel behind every engine.

We strart off with a spate of minor problems, get going on the steambrake valves and get No7 back into traffic.

Sorry we've been off the air for a while, major computor malfunction now fixed.

With many railways opting out of "Thomas the tank engine" themed events for verious reasons, we now have to find different attractions. For our first trains of the season running through the half term holidays we have gone for the traditional childrens favorite, the "Teddy Bear".

The painting of No7 continues and we start to get the other locos fit for another season. Design work is still going on for the new braking systems on the brake vans and the PW department is in full swing (when the weather is nice) only kidding.

This is the time we get down to the things that have to be done at the period when we are not running. Such as painting, not easy with locos coming in and out of the shed in steam. This month we shall be re-painting BVR No7, working on the new air braking on the guards vans, manufacturing more steam brake valves and possibly repainting a few coaches. That should keep us out of mischief. The album will be updated as we progress.

An Anaglyph is two photographs taken from two viewpoints seperated by about 3", one for the left eye and the other for the right. They are then overlayed on each other the left image in red and the right in cyan both retaining the full colour information. To get the 3D effect they have to be viewed with red (left eye) and cyan glasses.

We run number of Santa Specials each year starting at Wroxham through to Aylsham and return.

Our timetable for 2009 including special events, fares ect.

This week we tackled the worn wheelsets on BVR No7. Our DS&G lathe was bought mainly for doing wheel turning but we had never tried to fit a driving wheel set into it. The rated swing of the lathe is 24"over the bed but our wheelsets are some 25.5" dia. All the measurments said it could be done and this week we proved that it was possible. The wheelsets were taken out of the loco, re-profiled and replaced in just five days.

This time of the year we run only at weekends. On this day the weather keep the passengers to a minimum, a total of 7. Only once in the lines history have we had to cancel published services. The steel roof of a farm building near the line was in danger of being blown off and endangering the trains.

The following details all the current BVR locos and their vital statistics as of this date

Our coach wheels average around 100,000 miles between turnings and at this stage we are also changing the profile slightly. The coach bogies are the most sophisticated 15" ones around with full rubber suspension and cost about £4500 each.

Visiting locos included Bressinghams "MANNERTREU", RHDR "HERCULES", Sandy River No24 from Clethorpes and "DOUG" from the Ratty all running with our full fleet on a very intensive timetable.

Just an odd collection of pictures of things seen from the footplate that promote a bit of interest and amusement in our dull lives.

A selection of pictures and drawings, not photos, to do with the railway. Gradient profiles, Maps and drawings etc.

Three of our locos have been to the Ratty and four to the RH&DR, one in particular several times to each. On this occasion No6 about two years after its major re-manufacture and modifing was invited to Romney for the May Gala. Sister engine No7 had visited the line a lot earlier so we knew roughly what to expect on the loading gauge clearance front. No6 with it's larger cylinders only had a 1" clearance over some of the water crossings and around a quarter of an inch cab clearance under the Prince of Wales bridge. The LMS hooter had been replaced horizontaly as it poked above the cab by some 3".