Our History
The origins of the CMR go back to the late 1980’s when Bob ‘Burton’ Brett created a 7¼” miniature railway in the gardens of Vine Cottage on Green Lane in the village of Little Melton. The Little Melton Light Railway was officially opened to the public in April 1989 and quickly became a famous local attraction raising funds for a number of Charities. Several of the original locomotives such as ‘Thunderbox’ ‘The General’ and Hotspur are now at Cromer as well as the original coaches. It’s interesting to note the Bob thought about making almost everything on the railway out of wood including the track, but that didn’t work in practice. Most of the Cromer track also came from Little Melton although it has been refurbished over the years.
In July 2001 the LMLR closed following the death of its founder Bob Brett. John Pond and friends purchased the equipment, locomotives, rolling stock and track in order to create a new railway in Ashmanhaugh near Wroxham. The Ashmanhaugh Light Railway started running in 2002 and over the years the track was extended with the addition of several new locomotives and carriages as well as a signal box creating a lovely miniature railway layout.
Unfortunately in 2019 the ALR landlady decided that she no longer wanted a relatively large layout on her land so a group of the ALR members led by chairman Peter Hodges decided to find a new home for the railway. A number of places were approached and Benjy and Hughie Cabbell-Manners of Cromer Hall and Farm said they had some space on a field near the Amazona Zoo and could store the rolling stock and equipment in their barn. So in about May 2020 (during the time of the pandemic) work started on lifting the track and ballast and moving it along with some of the Locomotives and rolling stock to Hall Farm in Cromer. A point of interest was that we moved almost 100 tons of the old ballast from Ashmanhaugh to Cromer.
Initially it turned out to be quite difficult to find a suitable architect/planner who would help the group submit plans to the council and over a year was lost. The topography of the site at Hall Farm was not ideal but Randy Gourdie developed an ambitious plan for the location so in 2023 work eventually started by excavating a cutting to create a reasonably level route for the track. Fortunately when we started working at the Cromer site a patron/benefactor, Tony Knowles, helped to fund the work of the group.
It took a little longer than expected to get the ground works completed but by the August Bank Holiday Sunday 2025 we opened the railway to the public for the first time. The Mayor of Cromer, Richard Leeds, drove the first public train. We had a great response to the PR and over a thousand visitors travelled on the CMR that opening weekend. Two of the original Little Melton locomotives, Thunderbox and The General were used to pull trains. We continued to operate the railway for several more days until the end of September.
This year the railway is open to the public at least twice a week between Easter and the October half-term break (weather and staff permitting) whilst the team continue to work towards extending the track on the site.
Tony Knowles 1941 – 2026
We are sorry to announce that Tony died this year but we would like to acknowledge the tremendous help Tony gave to the CMRC in it’s formative years.
As he grew up Tony developed an interest in photography and model engineering both of which stayed with him for the rest of his life.
After gaining a degree in engineering from Sheffield University in 1962 Tony went to work with Husbands and while with them a memorable project involved aligning a radio telescope at the Jodrell Bank Observatory.
After working with Husbands for several years he went to work with Radfords. Soon after that Tony joined the Nottingham Society of Model and Experimental Engineers, where he became an active member. A few years later Tony joined Severn Trent Water, where he worked until he retired.
Tony remained active in his retirement. After contracting Covid in 2022 and undergoing serious bowel surgery in 2023, he began to slow down, but his enthusiasm for life remained undimmed. All those who knew Tony will remember him fondly.