We are spending today preserving yesterday, so you can enjoy it tomorrow.
On the following Sundays we will be running as well as the main service the Swedish Railcar.
The dates are:- 31st July, 14th August & 21st August.
Both the main service and the railcar will be doing three runs each , but the railcar will not be servingYarwell Junction. If you have a Rover ticket it will cover both trains.
Below is the timetable for the three Sundays.
As you can see from the previous post we have Wednesday activities again during the school summer holidays.
The rover ticket will give you the chance to explore and enjoy the scenery and changing landscape along the line, which passes over the River Nene twice and follows it for the latter part of the journey to Peterborough.
Please bring your children and have a great mid-week day out, details from the office on the number shown.
To put it mildly the last two days have been a bit hot!
Monday got up to38c and Tuesday got to 40.8c here at blog HQ!
Far too hot for me a mere retired delicate flower.
Because of fire risk and crew safety last weekend saw the railway run a diesel service with the Peak on Saturday and the Swedish railcar on Sunday. Most people chose to stay at home and try and keep cool as much as possible.
This weekend will again be diesel only with the Class 14 out on Saturday and The Peak out on Sunday.
Looking at the television there are many discussions on global warming etc and the effect on future weather. Personally I think it’s beyond dispute that things are getting warmer. How this will affect peoples leisure and work activities is open to debate. This will also have an effect on tourist attractions amongst them heritage railways. What that effect will be is of course unknown at the moment. Without doubt interesting years ahead.
I am sure that those running the national train network will be having many thoughts on the subject as well.
Trying to plan for the mainly unknown will not be easy.
Well today is the first day of summer and we have started off with wall to wall sunshine and a nice temperature of just over 27.5c at peak.
So what’s ahead for the railway over the summer? Well I guess the honest answer is that nobody knows. We have some super events announced and in the pipeline. I am sure that, weather permitting we will have a great summer.
If you’re reading this as a working member of the railway then enjoy the summer and above all have fun. If you’re not a member then please if you can come along and visit.
It has often been said that the railways greatest asset are it’s working members. So please come along and say hello to them, look round the stations and ride the trains. Or in other words have a great day out.
Please take a look at our website at nvr.org.uk and see what tempts you.
This weekend the railcar and trailer are dong a park and ride service, for a festival in Nene Park.
Here it is arriving back at Wansford.
The Railway is pleased to announce after a great deal of work that Jubilee No 45596 Bahamas will be visiting the NVR from the 4th to the 10th of June.
The locomotive during this time will work a Jubilee Special service on Sunday 5th June as part of the NVR Jubilee event, the locomotive will undertake main line running while at the NVR
Now as many of you know, before writing this blog I used to do one of my own based upon my experiences running Orton Mere Station for fourteen years. I also did five short articles covering the first five years at the railway.
These are no longer on-line. However, I have commenced writing a book covering my almost 17 years on Nene Valley Railway. This will be published as an e-book and 50% of the profits will be donated to the railway.
Because of this I have been thinking back to some of the more, shall we say strange visitors I have never mentioned before in my musings and writings.
One which I must admit I had forgotten about came to mind. So here it is, on an average weekend running day.
It was a summer Saturday afternoon, and for once the sun was shining. I was in my normal position behind the counter guarding the till.
In walked this middle aged lady and without saying a word she took two Mars bars out of her pocket and slammed them down on the counter.
Looking at me she uttered a single word. “Refund.”
Looking at her with no doubt a look of disbelief on my face. I pointed out that she had not bought them from us.
She then informed me that she had bought them from a local shop not to far away but did not now want them. Then she also informed me that the shop in question had refused her a refund. Despite her telling me that she had made a scene in the shop in question.
So with distorted logic she decided that she would get a refund elsewhere, and joy of joys she had chosen Orton Mere Station.
She went a lovely shade of red as I informed her she would not see me refunding something I had not sold.
Thankfully I was not subject to a slanging match. Loudly she stated that we were providing lousy customer service. Then when I pointed out that actually she was not a customer she picked up the Mars bars whilst emitting a scream that sounded like dodgy brakes on a diesel and stormed out of the station. As she passed to rubbish bin she slung the Mars bars into it.
Me, I took a deep breath looked at the man standing the other side of the counter with an open mouth and uttered the immortal words.
“Yes what can I do for you?”
With a straight face he said “Got any Mars bars?”
We looked at each other for a few seconds then both burst out laughing.
It was just a normal day at Orton Mere.
When we look back at previous years we tend to remember the special events, Thomas weekends and galas etc.
We tend to forget for want of a better description “The normal weekends.” Where everything just flows. When the trains run on time, the sun shines and we have some really nice visitors.
See you’re remembering some now. The weekends where you sit down on a Sunday afternoon and think to yourself. I enjoyed that!
You may find when you think back that there are more normal weekends than you thought there were.
These weekends are important to the railway as they bring in revenue and more importantly Profit!
So when you realise it’s just a normal weekend, enjoy it, after all enjoying volunteering at the railway is what it’s all about.
With all the focus on Bahamas you may have missed this today.
Mayflower passing through Peterborough.
