We are spending today preserving yesterday, so you can enjoy it tomorrow.
One thing that’s always popular when visiting somewhere is to buy a postcard, and the railway sells lots of them every year.
Well here are two that were available many years ago advertising Peterborough.
As can be seen from the second image postcards were often colourful or though perhaps basic in their content.
Some of these older cards are very collectable these days, I wonder how many that are now worth money have been thrown away or destroyed over the years?
Without doubt the biggest seller in the summer is ice cream.
Certainly when I ran Orton Mere we went through the stuff quick enough.
Ice cream generally is looked upon as something just for the summer. But is it?
In my experience the answer is no it’s not just for summer.
I rapidly learnt several things.
If you have too much choice your sales can go down!
Both children and adults like choice in the freezer, but not too much choice. They get to the stage where they can’t make up their mind and get nothing, children and pensioners are the worse for this.
If you don’t have what they want they will have what you’ve got.
This was noticeable and it was very rare if I did not have what they wanted that they went away with nothing.
Magnums.
I could have filled the freezer with twelve different varieties of Magnum and they would have been happy. They always sold first.
You don’t need heat to sell ice cream.
Now you might think this a strange one, but we proved time and time again the most important thing you needed to sell anything out of the freezer was sunshine. I have sold ice cream when there was snow on the ground and the sun was shining. I remember a couple with dogs sitting under the canopy one Sunday eating ice cream with the snow all around them and their dogs covered in the stuff. They had one each sat there and then came in for a second each.
The choice of little old ladies.
I lost count of the little old ladies who came in and the first thing thay asked was. “Do you have choc ices?” They were the thing they always wanted. One old lady once told me quite straight faced that having a choc ice took her back to when she was young on the back row of the pictures. She uttered the immortal words. “I remember it like yesterday, first the choc ice and then a good grope!” I was lost for words, which even I will admit is rare for me.
So there you have it it’s out in the open. Ice cream is not just for summer.
Thomas on duty today running round at Wansford station.
Here is City of Peterborough in green livery.
Now personally I prefer this livery to black, but of course it all comes down to personal taste.
Which do you prefer I wonder?
Last weekend saw Thomas in back in action as we recommenced services with trips to Yarwell.
Here are three pictures of Thomas on his way to Yarwell
Without doubt for many younger visitors, and perhaps even a few older visitors the highlight of the year is Thomas’ big adventure up the line.
This year there is no big adventure, so here is a picture of Thomas’ trip up the line in 2019. Hopefully 2021 will give the opportunity for more pictures.
If you are a member of the railway, either working or none working and would like to do a guest post for the blog, with perhaps some of your experiences at the railway then please do so and send them to the address in the right hand column. This blog is for the members of the railway and members of the public alike and all contributions including pictures are welcome.
Perhaps you were part of the recommenced services last weekend please send me your thoughts and experiences of the weekend for example.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Here is a timetable of services from 1910.
It can be interesting to use Google Earth or similar and trace the trackbed of the old line and try to find these stations.
| Departure | Going to | Calling at | Arrival | Operator |
| 03.54 | Peterborough East | Peterborough East | 04.05 | LNWR |
| 06.31 | Northampton Castle | Elton, Oundle, Barnwell, Thorpe, Thrapston, Ringstead & Addington, Higham Ferrers & Irthlingborough, Ditchford, Wellingborough, Castle Ashby & Earls Barton, Billing, Northampton Bridge Street, Northampton Castle | 08.00 | LNWR |
| 08.25 | Northampton Castle | Elton, Oundle, Barnwell, Thorpe, Thrapston, Ringstead & Addington, Higham Ferrers & Irthlingborough, Ditchford, Wellingborough, Castle Ashby & Earls Barton, Billing, Northampton Bridge Street, Northampton Castle | 09.50 | LNWR |
| 08.29 | Peterborough North | Castor, Overton, Peterborough North | 08.48 | GNR |
| 08.40 | Peterborough East | Castor, Overton, Peterborough East | 09.04 | LNWR |
| 08.45 | Rugby | Nassington, King’s Cliffe, Wakerley & Barrowden, Seaton, Rockingham, Ashley & Weston, Market Harborough, Lubenham, Theddingworth, Welford & Lutterworth, Yelverton & Stanford Park, Lilbourne, Clifton Mill, Rugby | 10.34 | LNWR |
| 08.50 | Stamford East | Wansford Road, Ufford Bridge, Barnack, Stamford East | 09.15 | GNR |
| 09.48 | Leicester Belgrave Road | Nassington, King’s Cliffe, Wakerley & Barrowden, Seaton, Rockingham, Medbourne, Hallaton, East Norton, Tilton, Loseby, Ingersby, Thurnby & Scraptoft, Humberstone, Leicester Belgrave Road | 11.22 | GNR |
| 10.19 | Peterborough East | Castor, Peterborough East | 10.37 | LNWR |
| 10.50 | Peterborough East | Overton, Peterborough East | 11.05 | LNWR |
| 10.52 | Stamford East | Wansford Road, Ufford Bridge, Barnack, Stamford East | 11.15 | GNR |
| 11.09 | Northampton Castle | Elton, Oundle, Barnwell, Thorpe, Thrapston, Ringstead & Addington, Higham Ferrers & Irthlingborough, Ditchford, Wellingborough, Castle Ashby & Earls Barton, Billing, Northampton Bridge Street, Northampton Castle | 12.35 | LNWR |
| 11.42 | Rugby | Nassington, King’s Cliffe, Wakerley & Barrowden, Seaton, Rockingham, Ashley & Weston, Market Harborough, Lubenham, Theddingworth, Welford & Lutterworth, Yelverton & Stanford Park, Lilbourne, Clifton Mill, Rugby | 13.30 | LNWR |
| 11.47 | Peterborough North | Castor, Overton, Peterborough North | 12.06 | GNR |
| 11.55 | Stamford East | Wansford Road, Ufford Bridge, Barnack, Stamford East | 12.20 | GNR |
| 12.28 | Peterborough East | Peterborough East | 12.40 | LNWR |
| 13.05 Fri only | Stamford East | Wansford Road, Ufford Bridge, Barnack, Stamford East | 13.28 | GNR |
| 13.52 | Peterborough East | Castor, Overton, Peterborough East | 14.12 | LNWR |
| 14.14 | Northampton Castle | Elton, Oundle, Barnwell, Thorpe, Thrapston, Ringstead & Addington, Higham Ferrers & Irthlingborough, Ditchford, Wellingborough, Castle Ashby & Earls Barton, Billing, Northampton Bridge Street, Northampton Castle | 15.40 | LNWR |
| 14.37 | Leicester Belgrave Road | Nassington, King’s Cliffe, Wakerley & Barrowden, Seaton, Rockingham, Medbourne, Hallaton, East Norton, Tilton, Loseby, Ingersby, Thurnby & Scraptoft, Humberstone, Leicester Belgrave Road | 16.10 | GNR |
| 14.37 | Stamford East | Wansford Road, Ufford Bridge, Barnack, Stamford East | 15.02 | GNR |
| 14.49 | Peterborough East | Overton, Peterborough East | 15.05 | LNWR |
| 15.56 | Stamford East | Wansford Road, Ufford Bridge, Barnack, Stamford East | 16.21 | GNR |
| 16.02 | Northampton Castle | Elton, Oundle, Barnwell, Thorpe, Thrapston, Ringstead & Addington, Higham Ferrers & Irthlingborough, Ditchford, Wellingborough, Castle Ashby & Earls Barton, Billing, Northampton Bridge Street, Northampton Castle | 17.38 | LNWR |
| 16.16 | Peterborough East | Castor, Overton, Peterborough East | 16.33 | LNWR |
| 16.37 | Rugby | Nassington, King’s Cliffe, Wakerley & Barrowden, Seaton, Rockingham, Ashley & Weston, Market Harborough, Lubenham, Theddingworth, Welford & Lutterworth, Yelverton & Stanford Park, Lilbourne, Clifton Mill, Rugby | 18.23 | LNWR |
| 17.30 | Peterborough North | Castor, Peterborough North | 17.46 | GNR |
| 18.37 | Northampton Castle | Elton, Oundle, Barnwell, Thorpe, Thrapston, Ringstead & Addington, Higham Ferrers & Irthlingborough, Ditchford, Wellingborough, Castle Ashby & Earls Barton, Billing, Northampton Bridge Street, Northampton Castle | 20.05 | LNWR |
| 18.40 | Stamford East | Wansford Road, Ufford Bridge, Barnack, Stamford East | 19.03 | GNR |
| 19.37 | Peterborough East | Castor, Overton, Peterborough East | 19.58 | LNWR |
| 19.42 | Leicester Belgrave Road | Nassington, King’s Cliffe, Wakerley & Barrowden, Seaton, Rockingham, Medbourne, Hallaton, East Norton, Tilton, Loseby, Ingersby, Thurnby & Scraptoft, Humberstone, Leicester Belgrave Road | 21.11 | GNR |
| 19.55 | Stamford East | Wansford Road, Ufford Bridge, Barnack, Stamford East | 20.20 | GNR |
| 20.11 | Rugby | Seaton, Market Harborough, Welford & Lutterworth, Rugby | 21.32 | LNWR |
| 22.01 | Peterborough East | Peterborough East | 22.15 | LNWR |
| 22.35 | Peterborough East | Peterborough East | 22.48 | LNWR |
Now one of the most noticeable things on the Fletton Loop, if you ignore the odd sofa or washing machine is Botolph bridge,
Somebody has asked me more than once if the NVR built it. The answer of course is no, it goes back many years and although I don’t know when it was built I do have a copy of the maintenance record card for it from the second world war.
Here it is and as you can see it did not get much maintenance. It seems strange these days to see such a document filled in using a fountain pen and ink.
So if anybody has a date for it being built please drop us an email to the address on the right. Then I can add it to this post.
When the A605 was a more major road into Peterborough the bridge must have handled a fair amount of traffic. Just think if they had built a level crossing instead!!
One thing thats often mentioned on the railway amongst members are the school specials between Oundle and Peterborough.
Here is a ticket from Christmas 1964, a return covering the Christmas period.
