NN RAILWAY Introduction
Three year stay for 9F, "Black Prince": The locomotive should arrive at the end of May and then stay at the North Norfolk Railway for three years. This engine was a real favourite last time it visited and while the Austerity awaits its turn in the works for refurbishment, will provide super-power, while the Austerity was also rated as 9F power classification, the "Space Ships" (BR standard class 9F) at 39,667 foot pounds tractive effort (176.45 kilo-Newton's) is quite a lot more powerful (Our Austerity is 34,215 foot pounds t.e. (152.20 kN)
The Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway network once covered the map of Norfolk. The section between Sheringham and Holt (opened 1887, closed 1964) was saved by enthusiasts and re-opened in stages from 1976: today, as the Poppy Line, it is one of Britain’s foremost heritage railways, carrying over 126,000 passengers a year.
The M&GN Joint Railway Society is the registered charity that supports (and is the major shareholder in) the North Norfolk Railway, the Poppy Line operating company.
The Society owns four historic steam locomotives and a vintage diesel loco. It also owns the only surviving Gresley Quad-Art 4-coach set, an LNER pigeon van, a coach from the Wisbech Tramway, and other historic vehicles. Many of the Society’s artefacts, photographs, maps, tickets and other ephemera are on display in the William Marriott Museum at Holt Station.
There are some 2,000 Society members, many of whom work on the Poppy Line as volunteers: the line is volunteer-led, and over 90% of the jobs on the Railway are carried out by volunteers. There are only 30 full- and part-time staff.
Society members are kept in touch by a free quarterly glossy magazine, Joint Line, and qualify for a 70% discount on Poppy Line travel (except on dining trains and at special events).
William Marriott , after an apprenticeship at the Ransomes & Rapier engineering firm in Ipswich, took on the role of (unpaid) Assistant Engineer for the railway contractor Wilkinson & Jarvis, then constructing the Yarmouth & North Norfolk Railway. So successful was he that he was offered a permanent post as Engineer.
In his own words, taken from the M&GN Joint Railway Society publication "40 Years of a Norfolk Railway", Mr Marriott recalled :
"In the year 1881 I was on the point of giving notice to the firm in which I was employed and starting out on my own for America. I had served my apprenticeship as a mechanical engineer with the well-known firm of Messrs Ransomes and Rapier of Ipswich, and after a brief absence had returned to them as a draughtsman. This did not hold out the prospects I desired, hence my wishing to go abroad. However, one morning I received a letter from a Lady, the wife of a civil engineer in London with whom I had served articles, saying that Mr Jarvis, a friend who had been staying with them, had promised to give me six weeks experience on a railway they were constructing in Norfolk, and I was to start at once. I was not to have a salary, simply the experience, and I had some difficulty in obtaining the consent of my employers to leave so quickly."
Such a success at the job was the young William that 2 Years later, in 1883, upon the formation of the Eastern & Midlands Railway (fore runner to the M&GN), William was made Engineer for the line – at the ripe old age of 26! Appointment to the dual role of Locomotive Superintendent followed 2 years later. When the E&M was amalgamated into the M&GN in 1893, he continued in these roles for the enlarged railway, adding that of Traffic Manager from 1919 until his retirement in 1924.
William Marriott and his M&GN railway works, in Melton Constable, were pioneers in many improvements to the railway. In the early 1900s he took out patents for his own design of rail chairs and fishplates. He also patented a wagon braking apparatus. In 1915 five patents were taken out for various improvements to reinforced concrete constructions and in 1922 one for the moulding of concrete blocks. This early use of reinforced concrete for various M&GN railway structures was in the forefront of the development of the concrete industry and has left a unique legacy in Norfolk. Sheringham still has concrete telegraph-, signal- and mile-posts, dating from the early years of the 20th Century, whilst Cromer signal box is built of concrete blocks, all made in the concrete works at Melton.
Marriott has often been called the "Father of the M&GN”, with just cause, and the Railway gained the title of “Marriott’s Tramway” in some quarters.
Three year stay for 9F, "Black Prince": The locomotive should arrive at the end of May and then stay at the North Norfolk Railway for three years. This engine was a real favourite last time it visited and while the Austerity awaits its turn in the works for refurbishment, will provide super-power, while the Austerity was also rated as 9F power classification, the "Space Ships" (BR standard class 9F) at 39,667 foot pounds tractive effort (176.45 kilo-Newton's) is quite a lot more powerful (Our Austerity is 34,215 foot pounds t.e. (152.20 kN)
The Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway network once covered the map of Norfolk. The section between Sheringham and Holt (opened 1887, closed 1964) was saved by enthusiasts and re-opened in stages from 1976: today, as the Poppy Line, it is one of Britain’s foremost heritage railways, carrying over 126,000 passengers a year.
The M&GN Joint Railway Society is the registered charity that supports (and is the major shareholder in) the North Norfolk Railway, the Poppy Line operating company.
The Society owns four historic steam locomotives and a vintage diesel loco. It also owns the only surviving Gresley Quad-Art 4-coach set, an LNER pigeon van, a coach from the Wisbech Tramway, and other historic vehicles. Many of the Society’s artefacts, photographs, maps, tickets and other ephemera are on display in the William Marriott Museum at Holt Station.
There are some 2,000 Society members, many of whom work on the Poppy Line as volunteers: the line is volunteer-led, and over 90% of the jobs on the Railway are carried out by volunteers. There are only 30 full- and part-time staff.
Society members are kept in touch by a free quarterly glossy magazine, Joint Line, and qualify for a 70% discount on Poppy Line travel (except on dining trains and at special events).
William Marriott , after an apprenticeship at the Ransomes & Rapier engineering firm in Ipswich, took on the role of (unpaid) Assistant Engineer for the railway contractor Wilkinson & Jarvis, then constructing the Yarmouth & North Norfolk Railway. So successful was he that he was offered a permanent post as Engineer.
In his own words, taken from the M&GN Joint Railway Society publication "40 Years of a Norfolk Railway", Mr Marriott recalled :
"In the year 1881 I was on the point of giving notice to the firm in which I was employed and starting out on my own for America. I had served my apprenticeship as a mechanical engineer with the well-known firm of Messrs Ransomes and Rapier of Ipswich, and after a brief absence had returned to them as a draughtsman. This did not hold out the prospects I desired, hence my wishing to go abroad. However, one morning I received a letter from a Lady, the wife of a civil engineer in London with whom I had served articles, saying that Mr Jarvis, a friend who had been staying with them, had promised to give me six weeks experience on a railway they were constructing in Norfolk, and I was to start at once. I was not to have a salary, simply the experience, and I had some difficulty in obtaining the consent of my employers to leave so quickly."
Such a success at the job was the young William that 2 Years later, in 1883, upon the formation of the Eastern & Midlands Railway (fore runner to the M&GN), William was made Engineer for the line – at the ripe old age of 26! Appointment to the dual role of Locomotive Superintendent followed 2 years later. When the E&M was amalgamated into the M&GN in 1893, he continued in these roles for the enlarged railway, adding that of Traffic Manager from 1919 until his retirement in 1924.
William Marriott and his M&GN railway works, in Melton Constable, were pioneers in many improvements to the railway. In the early 1900s he took out patents for his own design of rail chairs and fishplates. He also patented a wagon braking apparatus. In 1915 five patents were taken out for various improvements to reinforced concrete constructions and in 1922 one for the moulding of concrete blocks. This early use of reinforced concrete for various M&GN railway structures was in the forefront of the development of the concrete industry and has left a unique legacy in Norfolk. Sheringham still has concrete telegraph-, signal- and mile-posts, dating from the early years of the 20th Century, whilst Cromer signal box is built of concrete blocks, all made in the concrete works at Melton.
Marriott has often been called the "Father of the M&GN”, with just cause, and the Railway gained the title of “Marriott’s Tramway” in some quarters.