Over-running engineering works have seen a delay to the planned start of passenger services on the Mid-Norfolk Railway.
A static Mother’s Day event on Sunday, March 27 is now being held at Dereham station, with a bookable Afternoon High Tea served in one of the railway’s heritage carriages.
Chairman Charlie Robinson said: “We are all obviously disappointed that we cannot welcome back our passengers in time for Mother’s Day, but the work is essential for a safe railway.
“One of the challenges of running a heritage railway on this scale is maintenance. Our ongoing programme of development and routine maintenance both finds old faults from British Rail days, as well as repairing and replacing parts of the railway that just wear out. The last two years have proved exceptionally difficult to conduct the level of work we would normally be able to do and also the loss of income has not helped.”
The railway is therefore planning to reopen on April 30 for a steam service over the May bank holiday weekend. Once normal timetabled service resumes, the railway will be running a mix of steam and diesel engine-hauled trains, supported by DMUs.
There will also be a range of special weekends, with the year ending with the ever popular Polar Express in November and December. Last year’s successful Kids Go Free group tickets have been retained, so on standard operating days.
For details of the Mother’s Day event and tickets, click here.
Advert
