Railwayana

The famous market town of Aylsham in Norfolk once had two railway stations, Aylsham North and Aylsham South. The former served the Midlands and Great Northern joint railways (M&GN) and the latter operated trains for London North Eastern Railway (LNER). The rise and fall of the fortunes of these companies and the lines their trains ran on is a fascinating topic for study, reflecting as it does, the peaks and troughs of prosperity in the area throughout the second half of the 19th Century and the first half of the 20th Century; the changing social trends for travel to the countryside and holidays at fashionable seaside resorts along the most Easterly coast from Victorian times to post-war Britain; and the impacts of international conflict during the two Worlds Wars upon all of these factors.

 

The current day Aylsham Railway Station occupies the same site as the former Aylsham South railway station (built in 1880 and closed in 1952) and is the northern terminus of the well-loved Bure Valley Railway, a narrow gauge railway which reuses some of the original standard gauge branch line which closed in 1977.

 

TW Gaze has been instructed by a private collector to sell an original blue and white enamelled running-in board from Aylsham South station and it is to be entered into their next Railwayana Sale to be held on 27 May at their Auction Rooms in another famous Norfolk market town, Diss. The firm’s own qualified steam train driver, auctioneer and Railwayana specialist, Dan Woods, is very excited to be overseeing the marketing of this lot.

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