The Mysterious Railway on a Norfolk Beach. What on earth was it for?
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The Mysterious Railway on a Norfolk Beach.
What was it for?
Join me in Trimingham, Norfolk as I take a look at an unusual abandoned railway on a popular seaside location.
What was it for? When was it constructed? Many questions remain unanswered.
Let's try to find out and see what you all think....
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They were built to transport materials when the placement of coastal protection/sea defences in the form of groynes and revetments were being built after a couple of server storms 1953-1954 - 1973 and the sleepers were shaped like that to help with compaction so they would not sink in the sand and were placed on shingle -- sea walls and groynes at Cromer, The original sections of seawall were constructed in 1899 with significant additions, extensions and refurbishments being carried out in 1949 and 1973 - 2013, The oldest central sections of the frontage are classified as Grade 2 Listed. -- Happisburgh coastal protection/sea defences in the form of groynes and revetments were built in 1959.
Great info thanks mate
Good video. Hazarding a guess I was going to say it was just to carry materials to reinforce the seawall as you can see the place suffers from pretty drastic erosion. Above explains it properly though. As regards what you said re the b&w photo, as a 70s kid I can vouch for the regular use of b&w photography up until the late 70s when technology really took off. Everything was expensive (sound familar? :O ) and people tended to use what they had, also colour was more expensive etc etc. The fact the narrow guage engines look to be petrol or diesel as opposed to steam, just looks like a building site. One question, it looks like there were areas laid with tar immediately behind the railway, was that the case ir just my eyes? lol. Very interesting though, not somewhere ive ever been, thanks for making this. G. :)
@@grumbo39 Black and white is a lot easier to develop and print at home, too.
@@sarkybugger5009 also newspapers where still in b&w so even professionals still used it
That's what I thought - Decauvilee track for coastal defence work (and judging from the photos) just after the 1952 East Coast floods.
That rail map showing the blue line (Norfolk & Suffolk Railway) the same maps shows a straight green line marked as (Trimingham beach) and when you click on it they name it as: "Remains of post war bomb disposal railway"
I'm surprised somebody hasn't weighed that in for scrap!!
I can confirm B/W photography was definitely normal for 1974 all my family photos from the mid 1970s are in B/W.
The best way to find out is ask old people who lives around. Not far away there is Caister on Sea with some trace railway line from Potter Heigham to Great Yarmouth. Remarkable places.
Thanks for another amazing video
Considering the environment, I'd say the track is 1970s. Salt water would have pretty well dissolved it if it were 1940s or 1950s. Pressed steel sleepers seems pretty modern too.
the photographs might be grainy and in black and white but that’s perfectly normal for amateur photographers then…add in the lorry is similar to the one in the photo so it’s definitely the 70s
You are quite correct, they still manufacture Steel sleepers today and they are pretty much just a larger version of what we have just seen. There are many places on parts of the main line, where they are still used today and I can tell you that they are very smooth when driving over them.
Pressed steel sleepers were in use during WWII.
@@stephensmith4480 A lot of those are probably used to make exactly this sort of stuff still, this looks like the prefab tracks that are constructed in sections in a factory for rapid deployment at the job site. They are still used for a lot of linear construction projects where they go away from easily accessible improved roadways or whatever. This is also the reason that rail engineers call the final track set up the permanent way to distinguish it from the earlier construction railway that generally preceded it in order to bring in the many tons of ballast, sleepers, and rails etc to the job site in order to construct the p-way. So makes sense this would be a similar construction railways installed for the purpose of building up the breakwaters which again require vast quantities of heavy hard rock to be brought to a long construction site with poor access to existing transport infrastructure.
@@seraphina985 The only prefab Track sections they make now are with concrete sleepers and they are mostly for sidings and branch lines and such. All the main line is pre laid concrete sleepers with the CWR laid on top in lengths of a quarter of a mile and then Thermite welded. There are some good videos here on YT of the Network Rail High Output machine working, its a truly amazing piece of kit I have been on site when it has been working a couple of times. Network Rail spent something like 300 Million pounds on their high output fleet, that includes Ballast cleaners.
Fascinating. Thank you for taking us there. Would never know about all these amazing parts of history without you. Thank you.
The rail sections with steel sleepers look very similar to what's used on the Bord na Mona industrial railways around the peat bogs in Irelands Midlands. Several thousand kilometres of this type of rail line stretch between the bogs and the peat burning power stations . Usually small diesel locomotives are part of the running stock . Great video as always.
Know them well. Will they come back into use, what with everything that's going on???. We used Polish coal for years no its Polish briquets at seven euro a pop now that's nonsensical.
@@philipmcdonagh1094 I've seen miles and miles of the track sent for scrap last year. As far as I'm aware , there's peat leaving the bogs in Offaly by the artic load for export , and we are importing peat briquettes from Germany now 🤣. Couldn't make it up .
Found elsewhere on the internet - “They (the railway tracks) were the remains of a railway built to supply materials when building the sea defences after the 1953 floods. Access was via Vale Road”
I've lived in Norfolk all my life and ever know anything about this. Great post.
My grandmother owned a caravan at Trimingham Caravan Park up until shortly before she died in 2009. We'd often stay there at weekends when the weather was warmer & we were on school holidays. This was in the late 80s through to the late 90s. We'd often walk along the cliff path, or beach, to nearby Mundsley.
For some reason, I've always remembered quite vividly that on one occasion on these walks, my mum told me that there used to be a train that ran along the beach. I don't remember why she said it, or if we'd seen something that prompted me to ask a question, but I do remember that I obviously looked at her funnily, because she burst out laughing. I guess I was about 8 and skeptical of what she'd just told me. I can't remember anything else other than that. I vaguely recall thinking that my mum was teasing me, or that it was one of those road train things you see at Great Yarmouth or any large seaside town. Even then, I didn't believe that because how did it travel across the sand after it left the access road to the beach? So I still thought she meant the actual coastal road, or for some reason in my child's imagination, thought she meant there were secret trains running on the old Cromer line, that could somehow magic themselves to the beach when no-one was looking!
I don't know if when she said that to me she meant it as a statement of fact, or just something she heard on the grapevine. Or even if she'd seen it herself. I think some of the problem for my child self was that since my grandfather & uncle were signalmen, and on my Dad's side, my grandmother (who owned the caravan) was a crossing controller, it wasn't unusual for me to hear funny or bizarre but true stories about trains or the railways. I'm going to have to try & remember to ask her about it now.
It looks like a track system where the rails were made off-sight in long lengths, 20 or 30 feet and assembled like a "large" toy train layout. The UK sure has a lot of history. So much history---so little time. Thanks for posting.....
That type of track is called 'panel track'. It's designed to easily be moved around, or replaced if need be.
Hi Ant, that stuff is what they call jubilee track, not sure why . It was and sometimes is still used today by contractors . It is basically a 2ft gauge train set with preformed pieces of track and points all made from steel
I only live a few miles from Trimingham so when I get chance I'll go and see it as I didn't know it was there.
I would think it was from sea defence work and if a large amount of it was lost in a cliff fall they may have left what remained
Great channel always look forward to new videos
If I find out any more information about it I'll let you know
Cheers Russ
Funny enough as we at Apedale Valley Light Railway still use Jubliee track today
It's brilliant in its simplicity. I've never seen it before.
In Google Maps Trimingham Beach looks gorgeous, but at ground level it trades in the gorgeous to interesting!
A great find. Nice one Ant.
As a kid in the early 70s in Lancashire I remember a similar railway being built with similar tipper wagons for, I think, a road construction scheme. About 1973-74. Were there any markings on the lorry tyres? Modern tyres have the month and year of manufacture stamped on them. If those tyres are 60s/70s, they might too.
More modern tires have manufacturing date codes on the sidewall, if possible you could check the tires on the lorry for a ballpark date
You may find procedutes for laying and removing mines in the rail themselves. Rail end tent to wear in to a levek audibly lower than the rest of the railore traffic will cause more rounding of the top of the rail and its ends. Even if the rail is altered by corosion damage, a cross section will show crystalline structtures aid grain patterns. Much like reading trees for logging.
Amazing find, Ant! You know that lorry tires will have a date code on them, would be nice to decipher it 😀👍🏻
The rail is like that used for the light railways used in the First World War on the western front. Great video
Thank you very much for watching 🙂
George Stephenson use to holiday there when he was little, he took his toy garden railway with him to play with whilst his parents relaxed on the beach......PS he(George)was a big hit with the local kids.
This looks similar to the track railways they laid in France during WW1, a Meccano like track that can be assembled on site quickly.
yeah, I thought that too; IIRC, Tom Scott hs video on that,
That's definitely going to be from the 1970s. The Dunlop logo on the lorry tyres wasn't introduced until the early 1960s.
wow, very good, here in Chubut, Argentina there is a rusty steam locomotive (metric gauge), destroyed and thrown on the beach of Puerto Madryn.
The times I have walked that beach. Had no idea it was there.
There was a company based in Leeds called Robert Hudson who supplied equipment for narrow gauge railways; the track and tipper wagons look like typical Hudson products, and they were used extensively by the British Army during WW1. Some products it made itself, others were bought in. The company ceased trading relatively recently, and I think its goodwill is now owned by Claytons of Burton on Trent
Most 2' gauge railways in the UK have Hudson products on them, very often in the form of army surplus bogie wagons; the frames of these wagons were also used for coaches - there is a "toastrack" at Apedale built on one.
Going off at a tangent, the last industrial steam loco to be built in the UK was built by Hunslet in 1971 for Robert Hudson (for a sugar mill in Indonesia); it's now preserved at Statfold Barn near Tamworth (as Trangkil No 4)
Last year we did a Railway and Beach Holiday over a week. Many railways visited down to the Middy for the last bash. Some working out via a Model Engineers Barbeque in Norwich. 4 Beaches visited with me finding an old iron gutter end. Loving what you are still doing Ant.
Love David and Lily.
It looks like decauville type track. That system dates back to the first world war, when they wanted to put up temporary railway lines, it's sort of kit built track, fascinating video Ant!
Hello Michael, yes I was thinking of the Decauville portable railway system. Sections of pre-made track work were assembled on-site to form the desire layout required at that time and could be dismantled and used elsewhere.
The track gauge was around 600mm to suit requirements.
Incidentally I have a live steam model Decauville type 1 (3 metric ton) loco that runs on LGB 45mm gauge track. This equates to a scale of 7/8 inch to foot. The 1899 original loco (No. 302) was built in France.
See Bathala at Sandstone Estate S out Africa.
Best wishes.
@@dougmorris2134 thanks for that!
Apparently there is still a stretch of that track out there that they can run a train on. I saw a programme a year or two ago that featured it, but I can't remember what the programme was called.
May to November 2004. Norfolk Rapid Coastal Survey. Context 460.
At least eleven sections of iron railway track with iron sleepers were recorded. Where measurable, the tracks were 0.6m apart. The railway was used in the post war period during mine and bomb disposal. Explosive devices were collected and then transported using the railway to areas on the beach where controlled explosions could take place.
Narrow gauge rails is something you can find on the most bizzare places, or just not at all when you're looking for any remains. There's barely any documentation about them, unlike regular railway lines
Very interesting Ant, and to say its a few miles from us we have never seen it,
A walk along there is a must go,🤗 xx
This is a brilliant find! Ive got behind on all of your videos i need to have a binge catch up!
Thanks Sean. Much appreciated
This beach was mined, left over from 2nd WW well into 1950 and 60's. Generally thought was never cleared as top secret radar installation RAF Trimingham is above it. The mined section of the beach was not cleared until 70's as I remember it. It was not unusual for explosions on the beach set off by tidal movement I can remember witnessing one when I was a youngster. This part off the beach was barriered off to the public for around 25 years after the war. I believe RE 's declared it free of mines relatively recently. Pretty sure tracks went in late 60's I can remember timber barrier going in to bolster up the old steel groins. Interested if anybody remembers it as I did.
DK
That was fabulous thanks Ant. We have some tracks here on beaches. They are all fascinating. Thanks for taking me along. Please stay safe and take care
The line was built to transport materials when the sea defences were being built....used on at least two occasions over the years.
Fascinating! It reminds me a bit of the dreamy and fantastic creations of Rowland Emmet - several of his drawings are set at the seaside.
The tracks and sleepers will be rolled steel, not iron. Iron would require casting and would be too heavy and brittle.
As for looking older than the 1950's.... It's been in the sea for 70 odd years, and the chances are the lorry did not crash down the cliff, it was probably just abandoned, like the track ..... Still fascinating though.
Great video, very interesting, thanks for sharing
Similar relics can be found at Snettisham and Bawsey which are connected with sand and shingle workings. Wolferton loading pier [built in the 1920s] still has a set of points on top.
Superb I know area been on beach at mundesly never knew about it..
I have another lost industrial railway in Essex at point clear there was a railway for collecting shingle from Colne point and loading in wagons running along and then a large wood bridge over a wide deep Creek to point where she gle was loaded onto Thames Barges and delivered I presume to London.. 60 years ago I walked on the bridge but it was falling down then however in one on the smaller creeks are wagons and possibly a Loco..
The track panels at Trimingham are relics of the 1973-4 contract to install 2 miles of the revetments between Mundesley and Trimingham. The contractors were The Dredging & Construction Co Ltd of West Lynn, Norfolk, using HE 6285, HE 7178 and Hu LX1001. The track was becoming buried by sand, tide and cliff falls and the contract terminated, it was completed by M.Maclean Ltd of Cromer using WW2 American half-tracks fitted with skips to carry the concrete etc on behalf of North Norfolk District Council 1974-6.
Hi Ant, that was fantastic, an extremely amazing find, thank you.
Thank you Phillip
We were there this summer and never knew about that track. Would have been great to explore it. Thank you for your video showing us this bit of history
Thank you very much for watching. I hope you had a lovely break in the summer
Short and sweet but definitely worth the watch 👍👍
You didn’t seem to mention. Those drone shots and the ground appeared to also show a broken up tarmac road inland from the rails.
What an amazing find thanks for this video . Fairly local to this so I will have to check this out soon!. Don't know if your still in the area but would recommend checking out the remains of Honing Station and the disused railway west of Swaffham Station really nice relics at both locations.
That was brilliant amazing how quickly things get forgotten
Thanks for watching Dave
There was a similar 2ft railway on the beach at Cuckmere Haven just east of Newhaven in Sussex. Operated from 1931 until WW2 and then reopened until abandoned in the 60s. It was used to move shingle to the nearest road. same light rails and pressed steel sleepers (ties). Some similarly rusty and stone encrusted track is occasionally revealed from under the shingle beach by storms and then buried again. It is thought the track originally was war surplus from the extensive railways servicing the front lines in WW1. Which used this track panels layout because each panel could be carried and laid or removed by a gang of men very quickly. The tiny locos (steam at first and then petrol motor) could similarly be rerailed after the frequent derailments. For a good fictional read about these tiny railways see The Somme Stations by Andrew Martin.
Excellent video. Thanks for sharing. The railway line looks like quite a narrow gauge.
Thank you very much for watching 🙂
Black & white film was still very common in the 1970s and had the advantage of being a bit cheaper than colour film to purchase
Thanks man. Ask about the track at the nearest seniors home.😂😂😂
What an incredible find !
Thanks for watching Mark
Loved that very interesting🏴🇬🇧
Fascinating video. There are remains of several narrow and even standard gauge railways on the Sussex Coast near here. I also have a small section of undersea telegraph cable I once found and keep meaning to make a video about
wow that was amazing , never knew that was there. its amazing what was hidden is now for all to see.
I absolutely love things like this.
You're on top form Ant 👍
Thanks Paul. Maybe personal toil has put my head into a better place creating recently 🤷♂️
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for watching 🙂
Fascinating!
Thanks for watching
Nice one Ant, looks salvageable and usable again, sad to see it on this state though
Awesome discovery great video
Railway I love it thanks for showing regards Fred
very interesting Ant, amassing what you can find when you look around. keep safe my friend
Thanks Martin 🙂
Looks like the moveable railway that was used in Shapwick Somerset, which was used to transport peat from the marshes there.
There is quite an interesting story involving the Shapwick peat railway and the S&DJR. Where the peat train crosses the mainline an express train collided with the peat train and ended up in the canal. You should look it up Ant. Also excellent video.
great yet sad video
Maybe they used the same rail for both. during the 1950s Trimingham beach was out-of-bounds due to the minefield laid during the war. Trimingham and Sidestrand beaches were not reopened to the public until 1966.
I've just read an article stating that it was used for transporting unexploded mines and ordnance after WW II to be exploded on the beach.
Another great & fantastic video of The Mysterious Railway on a Norfolk Beach. What on earth was it for?💚💚💚💚
Thank you very much Michael
Maybe remnants from WW2. Thanks for the tour. Cheers Ant! 😊
Hi what a fantastic video. I live in North Walsham and went down to Trimmingham to see this for myself a few weeks back having taken a stroll from Mundesley to Cromer was was amazed by just how much track there was. Aparently it only shows itself once in a blue moon and is normally covered over but with the rough tides lately all has been revealed. I agree that it was most likely laid down after ww2 as there was a RAF satelite station at Trimmingham which part of the site is still operational, the seaward side has long been abandoned. Having said that there are plans now in action to remove the "giant golf ball" which houses a radar to RAF Neatishead due to interference of the solar wind farm out to sea as well as the rapid coastal erosion that seems to be eating away at the North Norfolk coastline.I Thoroughly enjoyed your adventure and hope you are having a great time in Norfolk. Be sure to check out Norfolk's one and only abandoned railway tunnel in Cromer and the superb disused viaduct at East Runton.
Seems the video took you down the same path I did, from RAF Trimingham to the details about the air defence systems of which I was part of many years ago. I certainly concur that the track was for concrete transfer on the sea wall defences.
I was on that stretch of beach back in august looking at that old truck & them railway lines.
The surprising thing is that it appears that the sea defences are working so well! The shore line of much of East Anglia is eroding away alarmingly quickly, and those cliffs look very soft and easily eroded! Yet there appears to have been very little erosion there. So I would assume the railway tracks have to be something to do with the construction of the defences. If the railway was laid earlier, I would have thought it would have been washed away a long while ago.As it is, the Sea Defences are doing a remarkable job - even preserving something quite ephemeral as railway track! Thanks for the vid.
I live here and most of the costal eroshion is down to water run off not the sea. I still find it very conserning tho. Im told I have around 150years untill my house goes over. but who knows
watching this one and trying to find the film you made about the line to silverdale mine in staffordshire as its 21 years since i think one of the last railtours worked the line to the very day in 2003. no luck yet!!
Very interesting thank you from NZ😊😊
That type of track and locomotive were used by many construction firms in the mid to late 1960s, I can imagine it was used to move materials in the repair/construction of those revetments.
yes it was use for sea defence construction after floods in 1953
Again, nicely done!
Thank you very much Edward 🙂
That track looks very similar to the track that was used in the areas around the trenches of WW1 which were used to get ammunition and food etc up to the front line. Short track sections which could easily be assembled or taken apart as the front line moved. Fascinating subject.
Am I seeing what looks like the remains of tarmac to the left of the railway at around 7:40?
Definitely looks like it was used to transport materials for the defences.
There was another similar railway to the north of the Wash, at a place called North Sea Camp, something to do with the marshes in that area, Gooogle it.👍
So interesting. Thank you !!!
Thanks very much 🙂
Very interesting. It has to be the remains of a narrow gauge construction railway. More than likely it was abandoned when a storm damaged the track.
No mystery.....it was built gor construction materials building the sea defences in the 60s and 70s....
The lorry remains are the rear of a WW2 US Army GM 6x6 Utility Truck......there were 1000s
Excellent vid mate 👍🏼
Now that is a cool find 👍
Thanks for watching Anthony
The tyres on the wagon chassis will have date evidence on them if you write down all the numbers, assuming they are visible. The railway may be much older of course, but the tyre info could add to your knowledge. I'm wondering why the rails were not removed when the works finished.
Given its condition in such a harsh sea environment it is in remarkable condition. It won't be iron as that is too brittle for rail use, rather steel. I've seen rails from industrial use abandoned in 1960 much further inland in worse condition than this, so its fairly safe to assume that this is the 1970s track rather than that from the 1950s. Either way, it was used for the sea defence construction. If it were older it would be much further deteriorated having laid directly on a beach for so long, and would have almost certainly been removed for the sea defence construction had it been there beforehand. Have a look at the abandoned sections of the Fairbourne railway on the Welsh coast to see a good comparison of how fast sea air destroys narrow gauge track, as I believe part of that was abandoned in the 1990s and it is much higher and drier than this Norfolk line. There are some older abandoned tracks around the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch too, again higher and further from the sea where in places the rail web has rusted completely through.
Looking at the old photographs of the rolling stock reminds me of a narrow gauge railway used for the transportation of clay for brick making. The trucks are hoppers which can be tilted to unload…..I’m not suggesting this was the purpose here, but are very similar….even the small diesel powered engine used to pull them. When I was a kid in the fifties there was just such a railway a mile or so from were I lived…it was pretty well derelict but a great playground for us post war kids….no health and safety to screw our playtime up in the early fifties
it's a temporary line that could be laid to aid engineering works etc. They are quite common, require no preparation of the ground (besides leveling) and can be simply dragged to any new alignment so they can be laid very quickly - dozens of metres or more in a day with a good team. Railways are particularly suited to moving stuff over soft ground and for temporary works, "panelised" metal track is ideal. The metal sleepers "cup" the soft ground enough to stay in place. They were used a lot in WW1 for moving material, ammunition and the injured across the destroyed landscape on north-western Europe. From the pictures in the vid, this is clearly what is happening, small tipplers are carrying either spoil from a cliff fall or boulders to shore-up the cliffs in an attempt to limit the erosion. Seems it gave way while they were working there and everything was abandoned as inaccessible.
Lovely bit of history. (subbed btw)
never new it it was there brillant video good old norfolk well done
Thank you very much Nigel
Very interesting. But as a Norfolk boy, i have never seen it or herd about it .
Next door to mundesley. Lovley part of Norfolk
We have a caravan in Mundesley and have walked past Trimingham many times but have not seen these rails. You must have chosen a day when the sea had pulled the sand back? I am baffled! Great video though!
Oh what!! I know where we're going this weekend.. 😁
Know the feeling
Took a trip today
@@norfolksdisusedrailways4353 Is it still there? If you don't mind me asking..
its still there :)
Yeah very much so...enjoy was lovely walk down there
Bangin stuff
Thank you 🙂
We used the same steel sleepers down the pit in the 80s and early 90s up until the pits shut ,destroyed, I should say!
Just crossed my mind that this could have been another seaside tourist track similar to that built by Magnus Volks along the Brighton coast line. Just a thought. Great video Ant. Cheers, Bob
Those sleepers are of a fairly modern design and are of pressed steel not iron, they use similar sleepers on standard gauge railways for some sections of track.
This area was heavily mined in WWII (people died) and with the new beach erosion is uncovering the ones that were missed
Wow.
There are many of the same type in North Frisia (e.g. Minsener Oog). They were used for coastal protection (building huge artificial sandbanks to protect coasts and channels)
The photo shows side dump wagons and a couple of diesel or petrol powered locomotives. The side dump hoppers would have been to transport rock or sand to fill in behind the defence walls. Probably, all of that shingle there was brought in with those hoppers from a source inland, to prevent further destabilization of the bluffs.
Looks like some sort of small gauge tramway for the transport of materials. 2 foot gauge, 24 inch just like the sugarcane tramways in the sugar farming districts of eastern Australia.