The fantastic Norton Hill Light Railway in Snettisham is up and running once again this summer to the benefit of more local charities as all proceeds go to worthy causes. Dates for this year are:
Sat & Sun, 31 July and Aug 1st (Rotary Club of Hunstanton & District)
Sat & Sun, 14 and 15th Aug (Kings Lynn Round Table)
Sat & Sun, 28 and 29th Aug (Kings Lynn Lions Club)
Norton Hill Light Railway courtesy Mike Schumann
Background to the Norton Hill Light Railway (Hall Farm, Old Church Road, Snettisham) by Mike Schumann
Rural Norfolk, northeast of London, is perhaps not the location most people would expect for a miniature railway inspired by the 760mm gauge railways of Yugoslavia. However the author’s long term interest in this particular railway system and the suitability of the rolling stock for operator friendly modelling at quarter full size made it an obvious prototype when the time came to build a railway.
Construction of the 7¼inch gauge Norton Hill Light Railway commenced in 1986 following a move to a new house with adequate space for laying out a railway. However locomotive construction had started a few years earlier. The chosen prototype was No.2 an 0-4-4-0T Mallet preserved outside the military museum at Banja Luka in Bosnia. This had been measured and photographed in 1979 to produce a basic general arrangement drawing. However the absence of any remaining valve gear on the locomotive left a gap on the drawing. It was the subsequent chance purchase of a reprinted 1903 Orenstein and Koppel catalogue that revealed that it was built by this manufacturer and had been fitted with this company’s patent valve gear. The locomotive had been originally built in 1901 with the works number 892 for Otto Steinbeis’s forestry railway system and was O & K’s first attempt at building a Mallet locomotive. This was also the authors first attempt at building a model steam locomotive.
No 2, which was subsequently named “Kyra”, “Kupa” in Cyrillic, is built to miniature engineering standards rather than scale model standards. The objective being that the model looks like the original but internally is designed to operate with a minimum of maintenance. Compared with the prototype the rear fuel bunker has been shortened and a tender provided to carry the driver as well as adequate fuel and water supplies. Whilst the original was a compound the model is built with all high pressure cylinders and a boiler pressure of 100psi. The compensated springing and articulation on this engine work extremely well so that despite the long wheelbase it will negotiate 15 foot radius curves and extremely poorly aligned trackwork.
No 2 was not complete when railway construction was started in 1986 so a secondhand 0-4-0T quarry Hunslet was purchased and named “Angela M” after my wife, to provide initial motive power, together with two Cromer White carriages. As may be deduced from the railways name the land in this area is not flat. Starting from the terminal station alongside our house which has two platform tracks, a run round loop and a four track engine shed all leading off a turntable as well as a three track carriage shed, the railway falls immediately at 1 : 40 to cross a public footpath on the level. Thereafter the gradient eases to 1 : 45 as the railway follows the edge of a field in a narrow wild flower reserve. The gradient changes to 1 : 80 with reverse curves just before crossing a 45ft long timber trestle viaduct that carries the railway over another public footpath and into woodland arriving at the only intermediate passing loop. Continuing to fall at 1 : 110 with a 120degree left hand curve the line enters a cutting. This is followed by a 200degree right hand curve that includes an 80 ft long tunnel. As the line straightens out after reversing direction the gradient steepens to 1 : 60 and subsequently the tracks divide for a balloon loop. Taking the left hand route the gradient steepens further to 1 : 45 as the railway crosses a five span 100ft long lattice steel viaduct, followed by 1 : 60 on the sharpest curve on the line at 50ft radius. Within this curve the gradient reverses as the line begins to climb again to reach the start of the loop.
Construction of the railway took place in annual stages and was completed in 1991 having reached an overall length of 1600ft. It was anticipated from the outset that at times it would be opened to the public so 12lbs/yd steel rail was laid, the lightest available at the time, in all areas except the terminal station. Here aluminium rail was employed.
When initially opened to the public to raise money for charity in 1988 “Kyra”, “Angela M” and a visiting locomotive and carriages provided the service. It did not take long to realise that these engines, limited to hauling two carriages, were never the less having to work extremely hard to carry all the people who came for a ride. At that stage they hauled the train down the hill and then pushed it up again without running round. The construction of a Bo-Bo diesel locomotive, based on JDZ class 740 and designed to haul at least four carriages, was therefore commissioned. This helped a lot, but was not the total answer, since most people expressed a preference to ride on the steam train, given the choice.
To overcome the growing motive power problem and to provide locomotives that were adequately powerful for the railway an order was placed with TMA Engineering in Birmingham for the construction of a JDZ class 83 locomotive. August Zopf of Club 760 in Austria had kindly furnished the general arrangement drawings for one of these engines and Bob Meanley, nowadays the chief engineer of Tyseley Locomotive Works, produced detailed drawings and oversaw the erection of the engine. The class 83, a mixed traffic 0-8-2 with a four wheel tender, was the most prolific design on the Yugoslav system with at least 182 examples built between 1903 and 1949 by different builders. This engine was completed in September 1991 and was a great success. This was followed in 1993 by the construction of a JDZ class 73 complete with Krauss Helmholtz trucks front and rear. The class 73, of which 23 were built between 1907 and 1913 is an express 2-6-2 with a four wheel tender. It was the first piston valved and superheated engine series built in Austria with later examples built in Hungary
To supplement the original two carriages five open goods wagons and one van with removable roof have been built by the author. All are based on JDZ goods stock, which had been photographed and measured at Arandjelovac, Serbia in 1979 after an interesting encounter with a hostile local chief of police. The seating is a mixture of individual seats and longitudinal bench seats. All carriages are fitted with air brakes. The two larger locomotives carry rechargeable batteries and an electric air pump. Currently consideration is being given to building further vehicles based on passenger carriages.
After ten years service the cast iron driving wheels of the class 83 were fitted with steel tyres. Unfortunately those on the class 73 did not survive quite as long as anticipated and failed on a test run half an hour before the final day of public running in 2002. The two smaller engines were rapidly steamed and together hauled a four coach train all afternoon until on the penultimate run the grate on “Angela M” melted. The one disadvantage of burning anthracite as a fuel is the damage done to grates
The railway operates for charity on three weekends a year, during the summer school holidays. Refreshment are provided as are various stalls selling produce to raise additional funds and games to amuse the adults and children. Good fun is had by all. Two trains each of four carriages are operated with one train out on the line whilst the other is reloading with passengers. Each year the number of passengers carried by the railway increases so that now on an average weekend, with a reasonably slick operation, in excess of 1000 people are carried over two three hour periods. Since the class 83 is capable of hauling up to eight carriages and the class 73 seven carriages they are at the moment both working well within their capacity. The highlight however of a weekend for the volunteer drivers is operating a double headed train with all the carriages and laden with the weekends helpers. Sitting a little back in the train watching and listening to its progress it is easy to transport the imagination back to Bosnia. That was however the authors objective in the first place.
Tags: Charity