An appeal has been launched to help provide some much needed missing pieces for a railway restoration project.

The North Norfolk Railway, supported by the Midland and Great Northern (M&GN) Joint Railway Society, is planning to restore platform two on Sheringham station to its former glory.

The plans include replacing the buildings and platform canopy on platform two that were demolished after the line through to Melton Constable was closed by British Railways in 1964.

The part of the restoration work which is the canopy project will eventually see the reinstatement of several canopy stanchions, heavy cast iron columns which take the weight of the canopy.

On top of the stanchions are decorative M&GN spandrels, but some are unfortunately missing and an appeal has been launched for anyone to get in touch who can donate these.

M&GN trustee Nigel Scarlett said the spandrels and columns they already have were given to them from what was Great Yarmouth Beach station.

The station at Yarmouth was converted for use as a coach station in 1962 and the majority of the station buildings and the platforms remained in place until 1986 when they were demolished.

The spandrels from Yarmouth are a slightly different version to the ones used originally at Sheringham but Mr Scarlett said: 'As these are genuine 1880s M&GN we feel they will be appropriate.'

He said: 'We have wanted to do the work since the railway moved into the site in 1967 then we were given the spandrels and columns from Great Yarmouth station. Over the last couple of years we have worked to get the columns put up.'

He added that much of the work will be new build. He also said that at the moment it was only the early stages of the project so they were not sure exactly how much it would cost overall but to erect the spandrels would be about £5,000.

He added that the timescale for the project was all dependent on fundraising.

The railway came to Sheringham in 1887 as part of the Midland and Great Northern Line (M&GN) from Norwich through Sheringham and on to the Midlands. Locally it was known as the 'Muddle and Go Nowhere Line'.

The line was closed in the early 1960s and British Rail closed Sheringham Station in 1972. The NNR took over the site in 1967.

Anyone able to help should get in touch with Mr Scarlett who is based at Sheringham Station or email him at nigel.scarlett@btinternet.com.