The Nottingham & Melton Line was host to 2 types of trains making use of the Midland & Great Northern Line.

• "Saxby - Bourne" trains - stopping trains from Nottingham or Saxby to Bourne, Spalding, South Lynn or King's Lynn
• Holiday traffic from Nottingham and Lancashire to the resorts on the Norfolk coast

In these tables "S" trains went south from Nottingham, "T" trains went north to Nottingham. An important point to note straightaway is that holiday trains would split at Melton Constable to serve Cromer, Norwich and Yarmouth. Also listed in the Tables are summer Saturday trains to London.

The opening of the M & GN Joint Line in 1893 provided the Midland with the opportunity to send passenger traffic east towards Lynn (later South Lynn) and Yarmouth. At first the journey from Nottingham was via Peterborough, and required changing at Leicester or Melton, then at Peterborough, and finally at Lynn for Cromer, Norwich and Yarmouth.

However in the 1894 summer timetable, the Midland proudly announced, "Commencing May 1st 1894, a service of trains will be run over a new line between Saxby and Bourne & Spalding, in connection with trains from Derby, Birmingham, Leicester and Nottingham."

What this actually meant was three daily "Saxby - Bourne" trains each way (five serving Lynn, one from Spalding), so at least two changes were still required to travel from Nottingham to say Cromer. Those connections are reproduced below, and this approach continued for some years.

Nottm 0830 to Melton (L2) / Melton 1004 to Saxby / Saxby to Lynn / Lynn to C/N/Y

Nottm 1115 to Leicester / Leicester 1240 to Saxby / Saxby 1328 to Lynn / Lynn to C/N/Y

Nottm 1825 to Saxby (U10) / Saxby to Spalding

Lynn 0705 to Saxby / Saxby to Leicester / Leicester to Nottm 1220

C/N/Y to Lynn / Lynn 1014 to Saxby / Saxby - Syston - Nottm 1450

C/N/Y to Lynn / Lynn 1540 to Saxby / Saxby to Nottm 1910 (D10)

Note - C/N/Y = Cromer, Norwich and Yarmouth

Possibly the first through passenger train from Nottingham to the Joint Line was a special from Nottingham to Lynn on Wednesday June 24th 1896, when a trip for the "<censored> Boy Birthday Club" ran from Nottingham 0955 via Melton Mowbray to Lynn, returning Nottingham 2210.

Two summers later (1898), the summer-only fast train (D7) from Melton to Nottingham 1614 was rescheduled to start at Sutton Bridge, where in theory it could pick up passengers from Lynn - Peterborough services. The Sutton Bridge service continued for 4 summers then reverted to Melton - Nottingham, which perhaps says something about its popularity.

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