The North Norfolk Railway will host a Steam Back to The Forties on Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 September.
The three stations on the line – Sheringham, Wybourne and Holt – will host live music, classic vehicles, vintage trade stands, historical displays and wartime clothing.
Sheringham station will have a ‘Blitz Spirit' Home Front theme, including:
- live recreations of wireless favourites
- a “Home Front Holiday”
- Air Raid and Land Army duties
- live cooking demonstrations using Ministry of Food recipes using home-grown goods and rations
- parades organised by the Carnival Committee in the late afternoon/early evening each day.
Visitors can make unlimited journeys from Sheringham to the other two stations, on board trains hauled by four historic steam locomotives from the line's fleet.
These trains will resemble those that transported soldiers, evacuees and workers, and carried vital supplies.
A demonstration wartime goods train will also run. Bygone buses will run to Holt as a supplement to the train service.
Weybourne station will host further displays and activities, including:
- military camps depicting signalling, communication and mine detection technology
- the Officers' Tea Dance, with lessons from The Swingymabobs
- a NAAFI clubhouse
- a shoe-shining stand run by the Railway's Youth Development Club.
Next to Holt station, the main exhibition site will contain over eighty over 80 military vehicles, a full-size replica Spitfire and an array of vintage cars.
Historical displays and talks will take place throughout the day including military camps, Scouts' camps and games, the Women's Land Army and working horse demonstrations. The Vibettes, The Three Chordettes, the Skyliner Big Band and Sarah Mai will perform music from the forties on the main stage, which will run from 10am until 4pm each days.
The exhibition field will also house a range of trade stalls selling vintage items including clothing, jewellery, accessories, ephemera, homewares, food and drink.
Trains will run every half hour between Sheringham and Holt, hauled by locomotives including:
- No 53809, a heavy goods engine built at Darlington in 1925 to work on the famous Somerset and Dorset Railway, and the line's oldest working locomotive
- No 564, a 111-year-old Great Eastern Railway locomotive which has spent most of its life in East Anglia.
Carriages will include the railway's unique set of LNER articulated carriages, which were built in the 1920s and saw extensive use throughout the 40s.
The North Norfolk Railway (NNR) is also known as the ‘Poppy Line', and runs for five-and-a-quarter miles (8.4 kilometres).
Tickets are valid for unlimited travel on the trains, entry to all three stations and the main exhibition field at Holt. Advance tickets can be bought at a discounted price of £27.50 per adult until Friday 15 September. Tickets may also be bought on the day, at a price of £30 per adult. Family, child and two-day tickets are also available. Click here for tickets.
Parking for the event will be available at:
- Gresham's School, close to Holt station, in return for a donation to Holt Youth Project
- Bridge Road, from where a free park and ride service will run with vintage buses
- Cookies' Field near Sheringham, with a park and ride service organised by Sheringham Carnival Committee.
Full details of the events and activities arranged by the Railway, including train times, can be found on its website.
