Sunbird24

The Title of this page appears to be a misnomer, the correct name from 1866 is The Thetford and Watton Railway Company. This company built the line from Roudham Junction to Watton and it opened in 1869 with running powers over the GER to Thetford. Next the Watton and Swaffham Railway company built the line from Watton to Swaffham and on completion this line was also operated by the Thetford and Watton Railway Company. Finally, from an 1873 act, the last of many, the Bury and Thetford Railway Company built their line from Bury St. Edmunds to Thetford bridge and the Thetford and Watton added a connection to Thetford Bridge and operated the entire route from Bury to Swaffham. In Watton, where I lived, the entire line from Roudham to Swaffham was known locally as the Thetford and Swaffham Railway. The misnomer may have come from a previous act in 1865 when the Bury promoters wanted to built the entire line from Bury through to Swaffham but they initially scaled back to Bury to Thetford and formed a Company with that name. All this information comes from a the relevant pages being 75, 76, 99 and 100. These also contain illustrations of three of the locomotive types, all being 4-coupled, being 2 Manning Wardle 2-4-0T for the Thetford to Watton section Nos 1 & 2; 2 Sharp Stewart 2-4-0T for the Watton to Swaffham section, Nos 4 & 5; 2 Sharp Stewart 0-4-2 tender locomotives for running through services between Swaffham and Bury St. Edmunds Nos. 6 & 7. The missing No 3 was a Stother & Slaughter 0-6-0ST purchased second hand in 1874, having been originally built in 1850 for the Monmouthshire railway and canal Company. The engine shed at Watton had become inadequate and a new shed had been built at Swaffham so all the stock was transferred there when that line opened. Some of this information has also been clarified in another document, the . I have copies of the relevant pages from these documents. The fuller locomotive details can be seen on my WIP web page here: Sunbird24 (talk) 20:22, 18 August 2019 (UTC)