Lynn and Dereham Railway

The Lynn and Dereham Railway, wove a 26.5-mile (42.6 km) route to East Dereham via Narborough and Swaffham. It was authorised by the Lynn and Dereham Railway Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. cxxvi) which was given royal assent on 21 July 1845, opening in stages between 1846 and 1848; It later became part of the Great Eastern Railway. Only the section of line between King's Lynn and Narborough was opened under the L&DR, on 17 October 1846. The remainder of the line was opened in stages by the L&DR's immediate successor, the East Anglian Railways. The original intention of the company had been to extend their line to Great Yarmouth, via Norwich, but this plan was blocked by the rival Wymondham to Dereham scheme proposed by the Norfolk Railway.

A reported case in the Court of Common Pleas in 1850 reported that a five-mile section of the railway was constructed at a cost of £41,029. The case concerned a mason and bricklayer (Mr. Heyhoe) suing for his fees after two of the partners (a Mr. Fry and a Mr. Frost) of the firm to whom the railway had subcontracted the job had become bankrupt, the issue being whether a third person (Mr. Burge) was also a partner and thus liable for the partnership debts. The case is still considered an authority in English law on when a person who has not signed a partnership deed can be treated as regards outsiders as a partner in the firm by reason of the conduct of the parties.

Diesel units were introduced in 1955, based at Dereham. Services increased from 5 or 6, to twelve a day and journey time was cut to an average of 54 minutes. Prior to that passenger trains were mostly worked by D16s and freight by J17s.

The line was not listed for closure in the original 1963 Beeching Report. But it was nonetheless closed to passenger and freight services by the Eastern Region of British Railways on Saturday 7 September 1968, save for a three-mile section for sand freight from King's Lynn to Middleton. Wendling station continued for a short while as a filming location, with the station and its road bridge featuring in several episodes of the British situation comedy Dad's Army.