dispatched with 10,600 tons of chairs and baseplates and many tons of small permanent way accessories. The activity continued until 1964 after which the land was used by Shell for offices, a helipad, supply ship berths and a stores complex. A siding serving Shell was closed later in the 1970s. Decline As early as the 1930s, the fish traffic began to decline until there were only seasonal specials on the Norfolk & Suffolk in addition to the fish vans on the daily return goods trip. The fall in income from fish traffic was only partially replaced by the development of holiday camps along the coast. In addition, the drop-off in traffic on the line between Yarmouth and Lowestoft via the Haddiscoe curve resulted in its closure in 1934 and lifting in 1939. The service had not been as fast as trains on the Yarmouth-Lowestoft line and by the 1930s it was also facing competition from buses on the A12. Nevertheless, the summer timetable for 1939 still showed seventeen services each way, most of which were all-stoppers, while others were combined with Yarmouth services at Reedham before continuing to Norwich in a journey time of up to one hour and sixteen minutes. During the early years following nationalisation, services on the Norfolk & Suffolk line were busy on summer Saturdays but less patronised at other times when a single push and pull unit hauled by a GER Class M15 or a GER Class G69 sufficed. Reliance on summer traffic was not enough and when British Railways started making losses from 1952 onwards, attention was turned to pruning the network by closing unremunerative lines. Thus in 1953 when major repairs to Breydon Viaduct were required, it was decided that Lowestoft could be adequately served during the summer season by diverted trains via Norwich Thorpe, and so the ordinary passenger and freight services were withdrawn as from 20 September. A good service nevertheless continued between Yarmouth South Town and Lowestoft, as well as a Saturdays through train from Birmingham. In May 1956, Prince Philip visited Lowestoft to open the new South Pier Pavilion and LNER Thompson Class B1 No. 61399 was used to haul the train from Wickham Market Junction. On 2 November 1959, passenger services on the Yarmouth-Beccles line ceased, partly due to the expense of maintaining the swing bridges at Beccles and St Olaves, and it was reported that the British