Month: August 2020

Thomas on duty today running round at Wansford station.

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.

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.

Well the railway restarted services today, though admittedly just a limited service.

But it’s nice to see visitors back at Wansford, even if in a controlled environment.

Thomas is running this weekend and next, and will no doubt be popular, but with pre booked services.

No chance of people passing up and down the A1 being able to stop, buy refreshments and then wander round the railway and hopefully decide to travel on one of the trains. Many people used to stop at stations as they were passing and buy something or perhaps grab a leaflet for a future visit.

This is very much on hold now, the days of full trains, big special events and gala days are but a memory at the moment, who knows if we will ever get back to what many look on as the good old days.

However, all is not lost. If you can’t visit the railway then follow it online with the Railcam webcams. These can be found at railcam.uk Here you will see a couple of free webcams at Wansford and one at Orton Mere. Plus others at both heritage and mainline locations. I have no connection with Railcam other than as a happy user. To access all cameras you need to join and cough up a bit of money, but many cams are yours for the viewing just by joining which costs nothing.

Hopefully later this weekend there will be a posting of the Wansford activities including some pictures. So as they say… Watch this space.