European Railroad Discussion > UK Memories; Thetford Forest

Located roughly 20 minutes from RAF Mildenhall/Lakenheath and near the town of Brandon, is probably the most peaceful trainspotting location in England (England, not Great Britain), and my favorite place to get away from it all, Thetford Forest. Running right in the middle of the forest is the Breckland Line, a double track secondary route between Ely and Norfolk. This line sees DMU's from two different TOC's, and a DBS stone train. Normally, I despised spotting on this section of track because of how bland it was ever since they removed the semaphores in 2014, not to mention the parade of Class 170's and 158's. One upside to the Breckland Line is that it's a connection point for the Mid-Norfolk Railway, and a favorite route used by special trains destined for Norfolk. That means special moves are possible throughout the year.

Case in point, three of the many special moves I caught while I was there are shown. The first one are BR 44871 and 45407 double heading a Z1 something from London Liverpool St. to Norwich as part of their Cathedrals Express excursion. (12/6/14). The second one is a one off enthusiasts special (I believe. I'm certain this was done for rare mileage) lead by 2x DRS Class 37's (5/9/15). The third one is my favorite, BR 61306 leads the Easterling for Lowestoft, rounding the curve in the Forest (3/8/15).

There's not much to see out in the "Breck's" but when there something coming, this is the place to be! Thanks for looking!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/16 21:08 by wheelnrail.

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Wonderful images!

Beautiful photos.

KG

Third picture is my favourite.

86235 Wrote:
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> Third picture is my favourite.

I agree, and the luck of having the sun shine at the right moment, given the wonderful cloudy sky, makes it even better.
Classic East Anglian conditions!

Thanks

I like all three of them.

Malcolm
New Zealand

Superb set of photos. Chris uk

All three are wonderful shots!

1 Black Five is wonderful, 2 well.................................

Thanks for posting.

All three photos are wonderful. Interesting shade of green on #3 - is that the standard BR green?

King_Coal Wrote:
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> All three photos are wonderful. Interesting shade
> of green on #3 - is that the standard BR green?

No, it's LNER Apple Green. Like many locomotive types designed just pre-nationalisation it was actually built by British Railways. It sported its BR number 61306 (the LNER number would have been 1306) but as a BR corporate livery had yet to be designed it was painted in it's parent company's scheme, which for the B1s was Apple Green



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/16 10:50 by 86235.

I rode behind the 44871 on the Jacobite in 2015. Very good trip.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/14/17 20:08 by Grande473.

GREAT pics!!

This is the kind of post that makes a good morning into a very good morning.  Thanks for sharing!

Kit Courter
Menefee, CA
LunarLight Photography

Great set of photos, Congratulations on IOTD here on Trainorders.

Rich