We are spending today preserving yesterday, so you can enjoy it tomorrow.
Part of the Barnwell building on platform 2 houses the Station Masters office.
This has been refurbished in recent years, and here are some pictures of how it looks today.
Should you visit Wansford then take a look at this office, well worth the visit to see what can be achieved on a refurbishment with some effort.
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One place that people rarely think about except when validating or buying tickets is the booking office. Not realising that it houses a crack squad trained to extract money with the least amount of pain.
Here are a few pictures of the booking office.
So there you have it, the hub of the station on running days.
All images are © Kim Shaw.
Well a lot of the restrictions are being lifted on Monday, the railway will not have a restriction on seating numbers and the rover ticket is being reintroduced.
The question is of course is for how long? The number of infections, especially amongst the young is skyrocketing.
So all the railway can do is as much as it can to make visitors enjoy a visit without being restricted or limited.
So we shall see how it goes, we can of course do nothing more, but personally at the moment I feel like I do on a bright summers day.
It won’t last!
Please note these views are mine and do not represent any policies of the railway now or in the future.
A great way to spend a Wednesday at the railway.
On Thursday 10th June, we had a visit from Armstrong Powerhouse to record every single sound of 45041 Royal Tank Regiment.
There was plenty of stopping and starting and lots of noise. They make sound packs for the leading online train simulator to make the experience sound as realistic as possible.
They got everything they wanted and have said how very helpful the NVR has been for organising this.
This is their second visit, as they came to record sounds from 31271 a few years ago but I’m sure it won’t be their last visit.
Below are some images from the day.
My thanks to Harvey Harrison for some of the above text and all the images below.
Here we are with services running again on the railway. Granted it may not be as many as we would like to run and we are running with reduced capacity. But we are running!
It’s nice to see visitors back at the railway enjoying themselves.
We have lots of events planned, the most notable being Thomas’ 50th birthday bash at the end of the month. Plus of course the The Steam EnGIN Express on the 24th July. I will be interested to see how the event goes. I feel that it will be popular and hopefully become a regular perhaps yearly event.
This coming Saturday the 12th of June sees the Wansford Miniature Railway Grand Opening. A lot of work has gone into the miniature railway’s construction and it will without doubt be popular.
Locomotives in Steam and on Display
Steam Locomotive Sweet Pea “Holly”
Steam Locomotive War Department No 90776 Royal Anglian Regiment
Steam Locomotive GWR King “King Edward II”
Steam Locomotive GWR Parire No 4588
Steam Locomotive Sweet Pea “Joe”
Battery Electric Class 14 No 9520
Battery Electric 08 No 08679
Under Overhaul LNER B1 Roedeer on Display
Sweet Pea
If you’re visiting the railway please give it your support.
So lets look forward to a summer of trains and visitors.
When I joined the railway some sixteen years ago people often commented about the magic of the Nene Valley Railway, and I never quite understood what they were on about.
Today I am sitting here watching families arrive at Wansford Station, and see them showing their young children the view through the gates. I see the children hopping from one foot to another excitedly, looking forward to seeing Thomas and having a trip behind him.
Then I see the adults smiling as well already enjoying their visit and looking forward to what’s ahead.
Looking at that I now understand what people mean when they talk about the magic of the Nene Valley Railway.
Tomorrow sees the recommencement of services on the NVR, hopefully with no more lockdowns ahead.
Services will still be far from what we are used to, we still have social distancing.
Looking at the official railway web site we have lots of special events coming up, please support them. This is still a critical time for the railway.
For those who do visit and travel, you are most welcome, thanks for your support it is appreciated.
The railway has played a very important part in Peterborough’s history and development and it’s fair to say the city would be very different if that first train had not steamed into the city in 1845.
Whilst we can’t fully recreate those days, travelling on the railway does give you the opportunity to travel on part of the first railway route into the city.
If you take some nice photographs during your visit and would like to share them please feel free to send them to me and I would love to include them on the blog. The email address can be found to the right of this posting.
Welcome back to The Nene Valley Railway.
For several years Railcam have had three cameras on the NVR.
Well I am pleased to announce that one of the cams showing the Main Wansford station and crossing is now available on YouTube.
Our thanks to Railcam for providing this for the railway it is appreciated.