File:Wisbech and Upwell tramway - Small Lode - geograph.org.uk - 1241268.jpg

English: Wisbech & Upwell tramway - Small Lode Exiting Upwell depot > 1241222 the tramway crossed Small Lode, passing the first house seen at right, heading northwards towards the village of Outwell > 1241458. Nothing of the trackbed remains but its course can still be glimpsed by following sections of paths and tracks.

Wisbech & Upwell tramway's Upwell depot was 5 miles 72 chains distant from Wisbech. The line had eleven sidings, with two originally allocated for passenger traffic. During the fruit season the sidings could hold more than a hundred vans. The depot had a cattle dock, a depot office, a passenger waiting room, and a coal merchant's office and staithes. There was also an ash pit, and an old GER tender was used for a water tower until 1953 when it was removed. http://www.lner.info/co/GER/wisbech/route.shtml

When during the 13th century the estuary silted up, the fens surrounding the market town and port of Wisbech were reclaimed for agricultural use. The new agricultural prosperity soon attracted railways such as the Eastern Counties Railway which opened a branch in 1847. In 1848 the East Anglian Railway built a branch from Watlington. A third line was built by the Peterborough, Wisbech & Sutton Bridge Railway (later the Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway) which opened a station on the other side of the River Nene in 1866. The trains carried fruit and vegetables to markets as far afield as London. In addition, the construction of a tramway line connecting the villages Upwell and Outwell with Wisbech commenced in 1882. Board of Trade's tram restrictions resulted in the unusual-looking locomotives which not only had speed restrictions but controls at both ends and wooden cowcatchers and skirts over the wheels. Six trams a day in each direction provided passenger services, with the full one way journey taking one hour. By October 1884 traffic had grown to 3000 passengers per week, with peaks of 2000 in a day for fetes and other special events. The tram competed with a canal that ran between Wisbech and Upwell and with the canal being in a poor financial condition the tram eventually finished it off. When motor omnibuses started to appear, however, passenger numbers declined drastically and passenger services were withdrawn in 1927, whereas freight traffic continued to flourish. With the introduction of two Drewry Shunters (BR Class 04) in 1952, Wisbech & Upwell became Britain's first all-diesel line. The line closed in March 1966. http://www.lner.info/co/GER/wisbech/history.shtml