That year they contacted me to ask if I wanted to go to the opening of their new venture, a nine-mile miniature railway between Aylsham and Wroxham in Norfolk.

It might have been out of our readership area but I managed to persuade my editor that we had enough readers who would travel that far to a tourist attraction - so long as I did it on a day off!

Samson Arrived from the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway. (Image: Bure Valley Railway)

Now 35 years on the Bure Valley Railway has marked its big birthday with a special gala featuring the two locomotives that started it all - Samson and Winston Churchill spent two years on loan from the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in Kent to launch services.

Since 1990 the railway has undergone several changes in ownership and no longer has any connection with the Lowestoft theme park. It also relies on volunteers as well as paid staff and has its own locomotives.

Blickling Hall (behind) is considerably larger than the........

© Norwich Evening News