A couple of days ago hot on the heels of Flying Scotsman saw Britannia arrive for a weeks visit where it will be busy with a photo charter, driver experience, passenger services and a dining train on Saturday evening.
Wednesday kicked off with a freight photo charter, mixed weather but not a bad day for photography.
Here are a couple of freight charter pictures from Thomas Woolley, and my thanks to him for sending them.
You can see what I mean by not a bad day for photography..
I am sure the passenger services will be full over the weekend,
Another great visit, and I can’t help but wonder what ,else will visit through the year.
There are visiting locomotives that bring in visitors and then there is Flying Scotsman.
It was sure to be a memorable visit and it exceeded expectations, I mean even the weather was on our side for a change.
Record visitors and more importantly happy visitors.
Looking at it from behind the web cams where I supplied up to date information, times and answered questions. We had times when over 100 visitors were watching the Wansford cam on YouTube, with large numbers visiting the Orton Mere cam to see the services run through the station, supported excellently by the Pacer running a shuttle service.
We had a number of coaches visit, and afterwards several of the passengers used technology on the move to connect to the web cam and join in the chat, all commenting on how much they had enjoyed themselves.
It must rate as one the most if not the most successful visit.
Well that’s the first weekend of the visit by Flying Scotsman out of the way.
Sitting at home looking after two web cams and answering questions and posting train details I must say I enjoyed it.
Yes, I would loved to have opened Orton Mere, but I realise that’s not going to happen again. But I got the pleasure of exchanging information about the event with not only locals and UK visitors but with people as faraway as Argentina and Canada.
Explaining about heritage railways, our general aims, aspirations and goals. Now you may well say did that bring in money for the railway and I must admit in the case of our overseas visitors I doubt it. but, perhaps some of our locals and UK connections learnt something new, perhaps we sowed seeds of interest, you never know. To survive heritage railways need young blood, we need keen young minds that can approach things differently.
One of the visitors to the cams, mentioned how few youngsters were to be seen, there were some but the percentage did not look that great.
So perhaps next time you see a young visitor, stop and say hello, communicate with them and show interest. Now I am aware many do this but equally many do not. It costs nothing but it can reap rewards.
So lets enjoy the rest of Flying Scotsman’s visit and not forget Britannia straight after it.
Have fun and with luck it will be a great year not only for the railway but also for each of us.
We are pleased to announce that 70000 Britannia will be visiting the NVR from the 11th to the 18th March.
This is one of the first of our visiting locomotives as we celebrate Rail 200 under the theme of Best of British.
The locomotive will undertake a Photographic Charter, Driving Courses, a full running weekend with an evening Jolly Fisherman “The Britannia”. All details are on our web pages.
This weekend sees a joint event with GBRf, full details are on the NVR web site.
The weather forecast is good and the railway will no doubt be busy. Its events like this that I miss being involved in, but still being confined to the house I can only watch on the webcams.
So if you do plan to attend the event have a great time a,n should you wish to send me pictures for the blog then they will be most welcome.
Please take a few minutes to look at the railways web site to see what other events are planned, I am sure you will find something of interest.
Opening on a Wednesday at Orton Mere could be very unpredictable, We could be busy or totally dead, there were rarely days in-between.
Weather was not a factor either we have had wet days and been busy all day, then we have had nice sunny days and been totally dead all day.
Most business on a Wednesday was not from train tickets, it was from people passing, such as cyclists, dog walkers and the like. We always found that cyclists were often a strange breed, they ranged from the silent ones to the cycling fanatics, who would want to give you every last detail of the bike they were riding, they could out talk diesel fans with their desire to give you details. right down to the valves keeping the air in their tyres. Dog walkers were normally a friendly bunch, and the ones who said their dogs were no trouble normally had the worst ones for yapping, often constantly. Often you could hear them as they passed the signal box. But they often bought something to munch and drink for themselves together with a bottle of water for the dog. Many were regulars as well and seen most weeks.
So if you ever visit and travel on a Wednesday keep and wye out for those cyclists, they don’t take prisoners.
Named at Doncaster Works on July 21st 1961 before introduction to traffic, D9009 maintained the ‘racehorse’ tradition of the LNER by commemorating the winner of the 1949 Ascot Gold Cup. Based at Finsbury Park in North London, Alycidon was one of eight ‘racehorse’ Deltics stabled there. In May 1981, she moved to York after the closure of Finsbury Park and was one of four Deltics prepared to work a series of farewell rail-tours during their final six months of operation. Her final outing in BR service was on January 2nd 1982 as standby locomotive for the ‘Deltic Scotsman Farewell’. Whilst at the NVR D9009 will be appearing as 55013 BLACK WATCH.
Saturday 25th May
34081 will be renamed as Bulleid No 34111 Royal Auxiliary Air Force for the weekend (only operating on the 14:15 service from Wansford to Yarwell and back) Battle of Britain Memorial Fly Past at 14:03 over Wansford
British Railways Blue Deltic 55013 The Black Watch Peak Class 45041 Royal Tank Regiment Class 14 9529
Triple Headed Service with Deltic 55013, Peak Class 45041 and Class 14 9529
Evening Fish and Chips: The Fenman with Bulleid No 34111 Royal Auxiliary Air Force for the weekend
Sunday 26th and Monday 27th May
Bulleid No 34111 Royal Auxiliary Air Force Deltic No 55013 Black Watch Peak No 45041 Royal Tank Regiment Double Headed service on Sunday: Bulleid No 34111 and Peak No 45041 Double Headed service on Monday: Peak No 45041 and Deltic No 55013
All weekend
Mk1 coaching stock in use
Express fully fitted Freight Train and Brake Van Rides (payable on the day)
Five services per day with the last train double heading
Licensed Buffet Cars
Wansford Café serving hot/cold food and refreshments from 08:30
Wansford Shop and Second-Hand Book Shop open
Overton Tea Room and station open for the sale of food and beverages and their famous Hot Sausage Rolls
Shed Tours at Wansford
Ale on Rail
Other attractions to be advised
Trade Stands
NVR Wagon Group
Wansford Miniature Railway Shop
B&E Models
B17 Locomotive Trust
Car Parking
If you are travelling by road, please note the car parking arrangements below:
Wansford Station: free parking in our car park
Railworld, Orton Mere and Ferry Meadows Country Park: car parking available (charges apply)
Limited Disabled parking is available in the Wansford Station car park
On the 28th of April 2024 I decided to cycle the entire length of the Nene Valley Railway, it was quite a long bike ride, but I decided I was up for the challenge.
Leaving the house at around 12:20 I made my way over to Peterborough Nene Valley station.
Just as I arrived the train was pulling in, I snapped a photo of the station and then I had a short chat with the platform staff told them what I was planning on doing, I left just before the train was set to leave and made my way over to Orton Mere station.
As usual it was not very busy, just a couple of people in the signal box and someone doing some work on platform one, I said hello to the staff, snapped a quick shot of the station, and then went on my way to Overton. I arrived just as the train was pulling in.
I stopped off and had a quick chat with the station staff about how there was a lack of milk in the station the previous day, and that I had to make an emergency run to the Tesco express, told them about where I was going and then went on my way to Wansford.
This was the trickiest part of the journey as due to the wet weather I couldn’t just travel alongside the railway line as I had done previously so had to use google maps to work out a route. I ended up going through Ferry Meadows, up Love Hill, through Castor and Ailsworth, even along the A47 for a mile until I finally reached Wansford!
I was greeted by Thomas steaming away while the main service train went across the level crossing on its way back to Peterborough. I locked up my bike went onto the platform had a chat with the bar staff about how the day had been and how busy it was and then went on my way to the final station, Yarwell.
I entered the station into google maps and followed the route it had sent me, it led me down a gravel road which I biked down, I then went past a car which rolled its window down which revealed a rather disgruntled older man who asked where I was off to, I told him I was off to Yarwell, and he then seemed much less annoyed and gave me directions to take the next turn and it will lead me right down there, although the story doesn’t end here as I misunderstood his directions and turned down a path instead of back onto the road. I realised my mistake and turned back, but by then the gates to the gravel road I was on had been closed and locked, and I could hear the train departing, I still carried on however hopping over the fence as it was the only way out (I had effectively been trapped on the road.) I then made my way to the next turning. I went down the other gravel road, went past another older man who gave me more directions and finally arrived at Yarwell. I was absolutely shattered.
I took my photos and had a well-deserved sit down, had a little nose around the station, and then went on my way home. It was an interesting experience, not sure I would fancy doing it again anytime soon – although I’m glad I did it!
