Wherry Lines

Wherry Lines
Description	The Wherry Lines, East Suffolk Line and Bittern Line
Country	United Kingdom
Time period	2022
Train Operating Company	Greater Anglia, East Midlands Railway
Simulation difficulty
Author	Oxalin
Website	Wherry Lines
Route map Norwich Jubilee Carriage Sidings Thorpe Yard Riverside Freight Depot Fuel Siding Crown Point Depot Loco Neck Trowse Swing Bridge Trowse Tarmac One Mile Bridge Breckland Line Thorpe Bridge Victoria Sidings Great Eastern Main Line Brundall Gardens Salhouse Brundall Wxoxham Viaduct Hoveton & Wroxham Buckenham Worstead Lingwood CLH Pipeline Systems Cantley North Walsham Acle Gunton Reedham Roughton Road Berney Arms Great Yarmouth Carriage Sidings Reedham Swing Bridge Great Yarmouth Haddiscoe Cromer Somerleyton Swing Bridge West Runton Somerleyton Sheringham Oulton Broad North North Norfolk Railway Lowestoft Oulton Broad Swing Bridge Lowestoft Sidings Oulton Broad South Beccles Brampton Halesworth River Blythe Bridge Darsham Leiston Saxmundham Wickham Market Melton Woodbridge Ipswich

The Wherry Lines are a collection of branch lines in Norwich. Strictly speaking, only the lines between Norwich, Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft are included in the Wherry Lines, however this simulation also includes the East Suffolk Line from Lowestoft to Ipswich as far as Woodbridge, the Bittern Line to Sheringham, and a small part of the Great Eastern Main Line in the Norwich area.

The lines are formed of a mix of single-track and double track - care must be taken to ensure trains are in the correct places to pass at all times!

The Wherry Lines are rather unique in the UK for having several railway swing bridges over navigable waterways. While in real life these are typically set to allow trains to pass and only opened for boats when required, for the purposes of the simulation they have been modelled using the level crossing feature. As such, be sure not to set a route across them too early or a penalty will await at the end!

Timetable

A full day timetable for May 2022 has been included, with the following standard off-peak services.

Wherry Lines Services
Train Operating Company	Origin	Destination	Frequency (tph)
East Midlands Railway	Norwich	Liverpool Lime Street	1
Greater Anglia		London Liverpool Street	2
		Stansted Airport	1
		Sheringham	1
		Great Yarmouth via Acle	1
		Lowestoft	1
	Ipswich		1

Additional services operate during peak periods, particularly to Great Yarmouth via Berney Arms. Occasionally freight services operate over various sections of the route in the morning, and there's a special midday service from the North Norfolk Steam Railway to Cromer.

Operational Tips

Norwich

• Platform allocations have been included in the train descriptions. It is suggested you stick to these, even where they recommend platform sharing, to avoid blocking platforms for other trains.
• Sometimes where trains platform share, you may struggle to get the calling-on signal to activate. In these cases, it is often because the first train to arrive has already changed direction ready to depart. Simply take this train under signaller control and you should be able to call the second train into the station.
• Trains join and split throughout the day - make sure to route trains into the correct platforms to allow for these to occur.
• Trains from the Wherry Lines and Bittern Line typically have several extra minutes "padding" allowed for in the timetable on the approach to Norwich - often these will have to be held outside the station to allow a departure to clear the platform first. The train should still be able to arrive on time in these cases.
• All three lines into Norwich are bi-directional. There are times where you will have to use all three lines in both directions to allow for parallel moves to occur - be careful to set the points correctly so you don't block other services accidentally.

Cromer

• Trains reverse here to head up to Sheringham.
• Make sure you set the route the correct way out of Cromer.

Great Yarmouth

• Be careful to route trains the correct way - either via Acle or Berney Arms.

Lowestoft

• Recommended platform allocations are provided in the train descriptions.
• Trains often switch between the Wherry Lines and East Suffolk Line here - make sure you route them out the correct way.