Lynn's Ferry (2)

 The River Was Moved!

In the first half of the 1800s the river at Lynn looked very different from today. It was wider, shallower and curved erratically round the norther edge of the town via mudflats and dangerous channels to reach The Wash.

The Eau Bank Cut had improved navigation on the landward side of the town (above, lower left) but further improvements were needed to give ships safer access to the rapidly growing port of Kings Lynn.

Simple !

Dig a deeper, straighter trench. 

A new, more straightforward outlet for the river into the Wash was finished in 1853 by the Norfolk Estuary Company. This major project diverted the Great Ouse away from the awkward, shallow loop that curved round King’s Lynn and its old tidal approach. It gave the port a deeper, more reliable channel running across the reclaimed land north of the town. 

The Alexandra Dock was opened in 1869, and the Bentinck Dock in 1883.

Those docks are located where the river isn't any more; it has been moved sideways.

Let's now concentrate on the road and rail bridges at South Lynn. The railway carried the line from Spalding ...

... across The Great Ouse ...

... whilst the road bridge carried what became the A17 and A47.

This bridge was rebuilt in the 60s ...

... and, below, we can see the new build and old crossings next to the railway as we look to the east.

The road running across the picture is the old A47 with a welcoming level crossing over the railway!

The railway is long gone, replaced by a new crossing for the A17 and A47.

The new road layout can be seen on the map below.

... with the track of the old bit of highway passing through 'The Elms'. Its original route via the older road bridge is adjacent to 'Motel'. The same view is shown via Google Earth below.

The older bridge is still in use and carries, for example, a bus route running every 30 min.

The Ferry from Kings Lynn to West Lynn predates the road bridge by several hundred years.

Back then, this was the only way to cross the turgid waters of the River Great Ouse for journeys from the west to North Norfolk.

Here is the ferry marked on a modern map.

But there has been a problem with the ferry.

More tomorrow!

====================

Snippets

It Never Happened

The channel tunnel promised so much!

It Has Happened At Last

You can get into Oxford from the west, at last - several years kate!

Is It Really Happening? 

Work on the Portishead branch from Bristol, also long awated.

Will It Ever Happen?

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 Next Lynn's Ferry blog : Weds 30 Sept 

Lynn's Ferry (1)

But First : Lynn''s Trains!

The town was named Len Episcopi (Bishop's Lynn) while under the temporal and spiritual jurisdiction of the Bishop of Norwich, but in the reign of Henry VIII it was surrendered to the crown and took the name Lenne Regis or King's Lynn. However, the town is generally known locally as Lynn.

When fbb was taken, as a kiddie, on family holidays to Norfolk (Hunstanton, Sheringham and Mundesley), he was reminded by dad that Kings Lynn was a town full of level crossings. We had to hope we didn't get stopped at one or several.

In fact fbb DID hope to get stopped by closed gates as it meant he would see a train or two. From unreliable memory, they were only stopped once, for ages, awaiting a very slow, very long goods train chuffing by at barely a walking pace!

But Lynn had a lot of railways.

Reading from North to South, we have lines to Hunstanton with a branch to Wells-next-the-Sea. Readers might speculate on why Wells is so called!

Then there were trains from Lynn to Dereham and beyond.

Trains running via Spading, South Lynn and Fakenham come next with the Fakenham route crossing over the Dereham route just outside the town.

Heres where that crossing used to happen cartographically ...

... and courtesy of Gurgle Earth!

All the above lines are defunct, leaving the remaining electrified "main" line south to Cambridge and London.

These trains have, in the past, been very popular with older folk ...

... visiting their holiday cottage nearby.

But there is more historic railway interest at Kings Lynn. Its trade used to be very much focussed on the River Great Ouse. (fbb has no idea why it isn't called The Great Ouse River - mose folk just stick to 'Ouse'!).

So there was a 'Harbour' ...

... complete with imposing Custom House. There was a 'Quay' along the banks of the river.

Then there were the 'Docks' (two in number) ...

... with extensive rail access.

Here is the throat of Kings Lynn station in the good old days ...

1 . Station building

2. Goods yard

3. The Maltings warehouse

4. The curvaceous branch to the Docks

... showing something of the former rail infrastructure. Below c/o Google Earth is what remains today.  The white buildings occupy the goods yard with the station in shadow to their left ...

The route to the docks curves right. Also clearly visible is the former three way junction: right to Hunstanton, straight on to Dereham, and left, the only route in use for London trains.

Here is the station area on a map ...

.... and the greatly simplified continuation of the docks branch.

There was also rail to the harbour and quayside ...

... also showing some works sidings. Just a tad further south was some more complex junction work ..

... where Spalding and Fakenham trains crossed the London tracks. South Lynn station was a busy little place!

Not the best picture, but the station us upper centre both sides of an over bridge (note, NOT a level crossing!). In the distance is the river and at the bottom is the junction that would take trains to Kings Lynn station.

All is gone, now, of course.

The tracks used to come straight towards us from the left hand river bridge. A by pass road has now appeared and the former over bridge at thevstation has become the approach to a huge roundabout.

Thoroughly confused? Below is a simple map!

Historically, crossing the river was not easy; it being deep and wide.

As we shall see in tomorrow's blog.

 Next Lynn's Ferry blog : Tues 29th Sept 

Sunday Varoery

Pinterest Puzzle Pictures

Mystery Trolley

The trolley bus above looks very similar in bodywork style to the New Zealand example from Christchurch as revealed in yesterday's blog. The obvious difference us that it is left-had drive, so not from GB's former Colonial  nations.

Trolejbus Škoda 3Tr U Jána. Protektorát Čechy a Morava, 1941

fbb has failed to accurately identify the location BUT found the following on-line.

The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was a partially annexed territory of Nazi Germany that was established on 16 March 1939 after the German occupation of the Czech lands. The protectorate's population was mostly ethnic Czechs.

The Capital of the Protectorate was Prague.

Here the official titles of the annexed lands. Protektorat Böhmen und Mähren (German) Protektorát Čechy a Morava (Czech)
1939–1945

This shows a typical old Prague Trolleybus ...

And these look similar.

But were they green?

So fbb's guess is that the green six-wheeler, dated 1941, ran in Prague during the cynically named Nazi "Protectorate".

Canadian MagLev?

Krauss maffei MagLev vehicle on test track for Toronto "retrotransportation" "advancedtransit"

???? Obviously a test track!

Toronto Exhibition Grounds Test Track (1974): A test setup featured German Krauss-Maffei technology, though it remained a short-lived demonstration. 

A Bigger Mystery

Первый в СССР вагон на электромагнитной подвеске с линейным электроприводом, построенный в МИК (полигон «ВНИИПИтранспрогресс» в подмосковном городе Раменское) в 1985 году. Первый успешный пуск (подвешивание) произошёл 25 февраля 1986 года. Но с развалом СССР технология поездов на магнитной подушке была заброшена.

It is in Cyrillic script where C C C P is Russian for U S S R.

The USSR was at a critical junction in the mid-1980s. There was large-scale political instability and uncertainty, and cracks were beginning to form in the communist system in terms of wages, benefits and infrastructure. Part of this was new transportation challenges that served the large population of the USSR, which included 15 Republics at its height.

Maglev Trains stepped in with a solution with the Wagon TA-05 train. The train’s capacity was a few dozen people and Maglev envisioned the trains, if successful, to be used for both short-distance commuting as well as travel between the Republics. The train had the possibility to reach 400 km/h, which proves that in many ways Soviet-era production was ahead of its time.

It never did!

TEE To Northlander

TEE was, of course, a network of high speed high spec trains running under the Trans Europ Express label.

Here are four diesel electric four car sets operating a service jointly between Dutch (NS) and Swiss (SBB) Railways.

The units were exported to Canada, where, after a repaint, they operated trains from Ontario to the "North Lands".

The Northlander is a passenger train operated by the provincially owned Ontario Northland Railway in southern and northeastern Ontario, Canada. 

It was not a fast train.

The poor quuality picture of a typical timetable implies a whole day's journey.

Service was discontinued in 2012, however the Northlander is scheduled to resume service in late 2026 with an expanded route, modern trainsets, and upgrades to railway infrastructure and stations.

So the TEE units lasted from 1977 to 1992 ...

... when more conventional stock replaced them.

If the ex TEE  stock excites you, a model of the Northlander is available from Trix ...

... whilst an older TEE  version was manufactured by Roco and may well be available second hand.

A New IoW Bus Service

Only it is not new, it returns, under Government subsidy, after a long absence. It starts tomorrow.

For many a long year route 3 ran from Ryde to Newport via Havenstreet.

There were 3A and, at one time, 3B and 3C variants ...

... and in the early days of the Steam Railway, extras from Ryde to Havenstreet station ...

... although the above are of preserved vehicles on more recent running days. 

Then came the decision by Southern Vectis to withdraw the service. Steam Railway customers can access the steam trains via Island Line, by car, or buses to Wootton station, seen below with yet another running day visitor, NOT on any version of route 3!

The new bus service ...

... is but a shadow of its former self with a paltry three journeys each way.

But Havenstreet has got its bus service back - at last!

St Helens and Wirral "Metro" reviews will follow later, after Lynn's Ferry tomorrow.

 Next Kings to West blog : Mon 28 Sept