Last weeks visit to Lowestoft station of the Railway 200 touring exhibition train, Inspiration attracted the highest visitor numbers for any station on the trains nationwide tour to date, second only to an appearance at the Greatest Gathering Exhibition at Alstom’s historic Litchurch Lane works in Derby which featured some 140 visiting trains and locomotives and attracted some 40,000 people to the wider event.
The Lowestoft visit by Inspiration saw the Wherry Lines Community Rail Partnership (CRP) and the Lowestoft Central Project host a number of additional free attractions around the station and inside the restored Parcels Office including a railway photography exhibition, model railway layout, vintage bus and several stands including a public transport advice clinic and a number of local transport user groups and community rail partnerships from across the region. In addition, the stations community rail shop and tourist information office supplied refreshments and the station history panels and recently refurbished gates proved popular.
3111 people visited the train during its four day stay in Lowestoft, the highest of any station on the trains tour to date, even beating the preceding four-day weekend stop in the City of Norwich which welcomed 2620 guests.
Chris Mitchell, Chair of the Wherry Lines CRP said; “We were delighted to have worked with Network Rail and the Railway 200 team to secure a visit of Inspiration to Lowestoft station and our team pulled out all the stops in both promoting the visit and ensuring that anyone taking a tour could also enjoy a variety of additional complimentary activities and that the station itself was looking at it’s very best with numerous floral displays and bunting.
“My thanks go to all at Network Rail and Railway 200 involved with the content, planning and operation of the train, the Greater Anglia staff and on train volunteer teams for running the admissions on the day and all our associates, stakeholders and volunteers for their enormous contribution in making the visit to Lowestoft such a record-breaking success.”
Additional attractions arranged at Lowestoft station by the Wherry Lines and Lowestoft Central Project included a vintage bus from the East Anglia Transport Museum, an award-winning 1940s model railway layout from Peter Willis, members of the Norfolk Railway Society, a display of archive railway documents from the National Railway Archive Collection, members from the East Suffolk Travel Association, East Norfolk Travel Users Association, Halesworth to Southwold Railway, Railfuture and on a couple of the days, representatives from the Essex & South Suffolk, East Suffolk, Hereward and Cam Valley Community Rail Partnerships.
