NEW AUGUST 2018.  This is the second of five annual traffic censuses carried out by members of the Norfolk Railway Society in the late 1950s and early 1960s, all of which are available in the Files Emporium. On Saturday 19 July 1958, members of the Norfolk Railway Society observed the workings of trains throughout the area. Observers were stationed at Norwich Thorpe, Wymondham, Ely North Junction, Beccles, Ipswich, Melton Constable, South Lynn and, for the first time, Liverpool Street. They published their fascinating results in a card-covered typescript booklet, long out of print. We offer this file of it so the information it contains may be made widely available once more.

This one recorded the final summer of the Midland and Great Northern, and although steam had declined it was still the main motive power on the holiday expresses.

At each location every train was timed, its number of vehicles and loading were recorded and its timekeeping was calculated. The cumulative statistics are provided. Individual trains were not listed in the report, apart from two tables. One listed trains which gained more than five minutes on schedule, and each train there had its locomotive credited. The other gave trains which suffered delays of over 5 minutes, but no locomotives were given there - to save their blushes, perhaps?  No other motive power of any train was given. The overall situation was recorded in a table, so we know for example that Norwich (32A) had six of its Britannias and one Claud out working.

The only other locomotive numbers given are in a table listing the ones from outside the area which were spotted. On the GE most trains changed engines at March, but four 'foreign' B1s got through including the one-time Norwich engine 61047. The M&GN section featured a larger number of outside visitors - from Leicester, Nottingham, Wellingborough, Boston and New England.

Unlike the first census (file TO044, q.v.), no attempt was made this year to track the workings of each individual DMU.

The file is word-searchable and is provided with bookmarks to take you to each of the main parts of the report. It will be available to download as soon as payment has been made. You go to your account and click on ‘Downloads’. New customers create an account as they place their order.