We are spending today preserving yesterday, so you can enjoy it tomorrow.
Visitors over the years on none running days have often commented to me that there are no pictures worth taking if there are no trains.
Well here is a picture from young Jason taken last weekend at Wansford that shows you can get a nice picture without a train in sight.
We have registered ourselves with Amazon at their Smile Amazon site.
Where shoppers, shop through Smile Amazon they can then opt to make donations to us – added to their purchase.
More details can be found here Just click on the link – Amazon Smile Site
Here are a few important dates of the line when it was part of the big railway before part of it became The Nene Valley Railway.
BARNWELL STATION.
2nd June 1845 Barnwell Station Opened
4th May 1964 Closed to passengers & goods
ELTON STATION.
January 1847 Elton Station Opened
7th December 1953 Station Closed
OUNDLE STATION.
2nd June 1845 Oundle Station Opened
4th May 1964 End of timetabled services
6th November 1972 Definitive closing of station
KINGS CLIFFE STATION.
1st November 1879 Kings Cliffe Station Opened
6th June 1966 Closed to passengers
3rd June 1968 Closed completely
NASSINGTON STATION.
1st November 1879 Nassington Station Opened
1st July 1957 Closed to passengers
3rd August 1957 Closed to goods
26th February 1971 Closing of quarry siding and final closure.
WANSFORD STATION.
The station opened with the Northampton and Peterborough Railway from Blisworth to Peterborough in 1845. Being located on the Great North Road, it was for a few years the railhead for Grantham, Lincoln, etc., which at this time were not served by any railway lines. The branch line to Stamford opened in 1867. The route to Rugby became available when the LNWR built a line from Yarwell Junction, west of Wansford tunnel, to their existing 1850 Rugby to Stamford line at Seaton. At the same time, the Great Northern began a service from Peterborough North to Leicester Belgrave Road via Wansford, Seaton and the newly opened Great Northern and London and North Western Joint Railway in east Leicestershire. The Leicester trains were stopped as a war economy in 1916. The Stamford branch closed in 1929, having never properly recovered from the 1926 general strike. The station closed for regular passenger services on 1 July 1957 but passenger services from Peterborough continued to use the line to Northampton until 1964, and to Rugby until 1966. The Rugby line remained open for freight as far as the sand and gravel quarries at Nassington. When these stopped, the line closed but the track remained in situ, and the line was later reopened as The Nene Valley Railway heritage railway.
CASTOR STATION.
1845 Castor Station Opened
1957 Castor Station Closed
ORTON WATERVILLE/OVERTON STATION.
2nd June 1845 Orton Waterville Station opened as Overton
1st August 1913 Renamed as Orton Waterville
5th October 1942 Closed to regular passenger trains
PETERBOROUGH EAST.
2nd June 1845 Peterborough East station opened and just named Peterborough
1923 Renamed Peterborough East
17th April 1966 Closed to Freight
6th June 1966 Closed to passengers
21st September 1970 Reopened as parcels depot
23rd December 1970 Closed
One thing the railway often does is recreate events.
Here is a recreation of “The Pines Express” non-stop through Ferry Meadows station. This event is from April 2011.
The format of the video has been changed so hopefully more will be able to play it.
We have done both steam and diesel recreations.
Now it’s fair to say that the majority of the general public are a pleasure to deal with. But occasionally you will get some that defy all logic when it comes to prices.
Take this gentleman and his girlfriend for example.
Let’s set the scene, it’s a nice Wednesday morning, the trains are running and we are awaiting the first service of the day from Wansford.
Into the station wanders a pleasant man and his girlfriend. He asks how much it is for a single to Peterborough, and how much a return is.
He is given the prices and stands there puzzling you can almost hear the clicking of his brain.
Then he decides that a return ticket is too expensive, so can he have two single tickets Orton Mere to Peterborough Nene Valley and then two single tickets from Peterborough Nene Valley to Orton Mere for when they return later in the day as that he decides is the best option.
His girlfriend staggers out of the station onto the platform, sits on a bench and just cracks up. But by the time he wanders out to join her with four tickets in his top pocket she has calmed down.
Ten minutes later they get on the train with him telling her he got a good deal on the tickets. Actually he spent around £5 more than he needed to.
I have no idea what they did in the end because they did not return on any train.
It was just a normal Wednesday!!
One question we have been asked many times is why somebody coming off the main line needs a pilot.
One reason of course is their lack of knowledge about the line and where things like points, crossings and other restrictions are.
This is normally met with the comment the line is not that long how many can there be? The answer been more than you probably realise.
Here are a couple of excellent videos by John Wood which for want of a better description show what is where. The first is Yarwell to Peterborough Nene Valley and the second is that route in reverse. My thanks to John for allowing me to use them on the blog.
I hope you found the above useful and informative.
For some strange reason over the years I have been asked on a fairly regular basis if the railway ever used slip coaches.
Looking at this video I am sure you will realise that the answer is no!!
Mind you would perhaps be interesting on Castor Bank.
This weekend it is one year since the wife and I opened Orton Mere Station for the last time.
We decided that it was time for somebody else to have a go running the station, I ran it for fourteen years.
There were good times and there were bad times! But my one main memory is of the excellent people I worked with there over the years. I won’t attempt to name any names as I am bound to forget some.
The pandemic has for this year put the skids on somebody opening it, but I hope than next year somebody is enjoying running it as much as I did.
So if you’re a member of the railway and fancy having a go at running a station contact Kim at the office and I am sure she would love to hear from you.
As for me I will just sit and look back at the many pictures I have of my time there, and enjoy every one.
So if you’re one of the poor souls who drew the short straw and worked at Orton Mere while I ran it then my thanks to you I am grateful and, without exception enjoyed working with you..
Orton Mere Station.