King's Lynn
The bridges of South Lynn
& Harbour Junction
Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland'
Welcome to Norfolks; disused railways coverage from the bridges and the Sugar-beet railway line remains at South Lynn on the outskirts of King's Lynn in Norfolk.
There are three Bridges still to this day, one Railway bank, and a buttress in the overgrowth where a bridge once laid on top; also, I found some leftover railway tracks that I discovered close to the old site of South Lynn station.
Also, on the fenline where the M&gn crossed over the Lynn Ely railway, I found an old plate payers hut next to the Fenline
Bridge one was the bridge that linked up the M&gn line from South Lynn to Kings Lynn town station via the Harbour junction.
This bridge would have taken services off the M&gn to Hunstanton and the Ely Cambridge Fenline.
The second was the M&gn bridge that took the M&gn from South Lynn station over the River Nar and off towards Gayton road and Fakenham & Melton Constable.
Bridge number three no longer exists. All that remains is the bank on one side and maybe the bridge abutments in the overgrowth where the M&gn crossed over the top of the Fen line before heading off towards Gayton Road station.
Also, the bank on the other side of the railway no longer exists as it's now an industrial site called Hardwick Narrows.
The fourth bridge was built many years after the M&gn and after the South Lynn railway station had closed.
This was used to take the Saddlebow industrial estate road traffic over the old railway line that was now used for the Sugar-beet factory at King's Lynn; the factory seemed to have opened in 1927 and closed in 1997.
Also, just after the Harbour Junction, a small, short-lived railway served Campbell's factory that has now been demolished and replaced with a supermarket.
Campbell's factory closed down in 2007
When did the railway close down?
Please feel free to get in contact if you have any information.
In the 1989 cab ride film I watched, the Campbells line was still in use.
When did the beet line close?
Researching on the internet, The Harbour junction was also removed roughly when the fen line was electrified in 1992.
Please feel free to send me a message or a Tweet.
King's Lynn Harbour junction
The map below, with thanks to the National Library of Scotland, shows Harbour junction dated from 1949-1971
The map shows the line linking the central station from King's Lynn to South Lynn station on the M&gn.
The map below also shows the position of the four bridges.
The Harbour junction at King's Lynn is just outside the central station at King's Lynn. This was a busy junction taking services off towards South Lynn station on the M&gn and to various destinations along the M&gn from Peterborough, the Midlands, also to Norwich, Cromer, and Sheringham via Melton Constable.
The junction during the summer was hectic, bringing Hunstanton bound trains off the M&gn onto the Lynn Ely line and then off to the Norfolk coast at Hunstanton.
The other side of the Harbour junction was towards the short freight line that took a railway off towards the South Quay at Kings Lynn that closed in 1968.
In the later days, the M&gn closed down in 1959, and the junction remained open for freight use to the beet factory at South Lynn.
The Harbour freight branch closed in 1968
All traces of this junction were removed during the electrification of the fen line.
Also, at this junction, there was the junction's signal box housing a 36-frame system.
Both lines that used the Harbour Junction, the M&Gn and the Harbour line, are both covered on this website, please follow the links below.
King's Lynn Harbour Junction when the junction was still in use.
We see a diesel London Liverpool Street to King's Lynn train approaching the Harbour junction.
You can make out to the Right of the picture the harbour Junction that took trains off of the central King's Lynn to London Liverpool Street line and & off towards the M&GNJR South Lynn station that closed in 1959
The Harbour Junction seen here would have crossed one of the bridges we will cover down the page.
When this picture was taken, the M&gn would have been long closed, and the line would have only been freight use as far as the sugar beef factory.
Also seen in the picture here is that line is still double-tracked.
The following picture below with all the credit to
Mark Brammer for the permission to use this picture.
Thanks, Mark.
I found this picture with the help of the King's Lynn and area Model by J T Colquhoun's Facebook page.
This shows the Harbour junction at King's Lynn with a class 37 passing the junction signal box heading towards Watlington from King's Lynn.
The Class 37 looks to be carrying silica sand, so I am guessing it's a service from Middleton Towers quarry.
Middleton Towers freight trains use the old King's Lynn to Dereham line that remained open as far as Middleton Towers for freight use and is still used to this day when this page was published in 2022
Extons road signal box.
In between Kings Lynn Junction and the Harbour junction signal box once sat this small signal box at Exton's road that controlled a small siding that was once situated there many years ago.
The box at extons road housed a 22-frame system.
Bridge one
Harbour junction to South Lynn link Bridge
Here is the Old bridge as it stood in 2020 that linked up the M&gnjr from South Lynn to King's Lynn town Station.
This bridge would have served many different purposes in its life. Not only did it act as a link between both of King's Lynn's Stations,
But it would have also taken trains from the North & The Midlands Towards Hunstanton on Express day excursion trains.
In its last days, this old bridge was used as a shuttle line from the old British sugar factory that has now closed down and been demolished.
The sugar beet factory stood roughly where Palm paper now stands.
I revisited this site in January 2023 to photograph the M&GN banks, buttresses, and more from The Harbour branch and decided to get more pictures of this beautiful old bridge.
Bridge two
South Lynn M&gnjr Bridge
PMY2 53
This bridge took the M&gnjr from South Lynn to Fakenham, with Gayton Road being the next stop.
The line went off after Fakenham & to many other destinations across Norfolk, including Great Yarmouth Sheringham Cromer & Norwich via Melton Constable.
This closed Bridge was photographed in 2020 from the Nar Valley way walk.
In February 2023, I revisited this site to get some pictures of the M&gn Butresses and more photos of the Harbour branch railway, and whilst here, I took more pictures of the old bridge.
PMY2 53 bridge.
Codes along the M&GN were.
PMY Peterborough to Yarmouth Line
PMY1Peterborough to South Lynn
PMY2South Lynn to Yarmouth
On the south Lynn side of the M&gn bridge, I found these old, what I guess are mortar spigot placements just before the M&GN bridge.
Pmy253 Re-photographed in February 2023
The third bridge
The M&GN crossover bridge
This bridge took the M&GN over the Lynn Ely railway and has since been demolished, at what time I can't tell but demolished way before the electrification of the Lynn Ely Fenline that is still in mainline use.
The banks on the other side of where this bridge once stood have long gone and been replaced with an industrial estate Hardwick Narrows.
Former track bed and banks from the old M&gn line between SOuth Lynn and Gayton road
All that remains from the old M&gn crossing is this brick buttress left behind from the railway days.
On the other side of the bridge, in the distance, we can see the Hardwick narrows industrial estate that now stands on the part of the M&GN track bed.
Just by the end of the M&Gn bridge over by the King's Lynn to Ely, Cambridge line, there was also this old disused plate layers hut still standing by the main in-use King's Lynn to Cambridge Fenline.
The fourth bridge
And the
Sugar beet factory
The maps below, once ae
Thanks once again to the National Library of Scotland, we see the Sugar Beet factory and the railway line that linked the factory sidings up to the M&gn at South Lynn.
Once the M&gn closed, the factory's railway was kept open for a short while for freight use.
This fourth bridge is quite a new bridge and was built to take the factory's railway line under the Saddlebow estate access road.
This bridge was built during the construction of the A47 dual carriageway that's partly built over the South Lynn station site.
This third bridge was sited just after where south Lynn Station was but was not built during the M&gnr days and was built long after the closure for the sugar beet factory line to pass underneath saddlebow road.
Thanks to Paul Miller for the use of these pictures via Wikimedia.
Thanks again
Here we see the Saddlebow bridge taken in winter 2022
These two pictures of some old railway track left behind were found at the now grain silo site on the saddlebow industrial estate and were most likely left behind from what looks like some sidings from the M&gn at South Lynn.
At first, I thought they were from the sugar beet factory, but looking at old maps, the factory was far from where the siding were.
The sidings in the map below are where the grain silos now sit.
This is where I found this old railway track remaining whilst delivering on-site.
Until I went onsite to the silos, I never knew these railway tracks were there, so it was a nice pleasant surprise.
Thanks again to the National Library of Scotland.
Railway tracks that were left behind and found by the grain silos behind the caravan site at Saddlebow.
Heading back from the bridges in South Lynn, I found this old bridge by the new nar valley project footpath. Unfortunately, this bridge is not railway related, and by looking at this old wonder, its days left will be sadly short.
If anybody has any information on what this was used for, please feel free to get in contact.
The first two were taken on my first visit in June 2020 and the third was taken in February 2023
Please Look At this page from Lewis Collard, who helped me find some of these old remains.
Anyone interested in railway history should take a look at this fantastic Page.
I Want to send a personal thanks to lewis collards' webpage and Paul Miller and Mark Brammer, for the use of the photographs used on this page and the King's Lynn Docks page.
Thanks again
