Jason’s Photo of the Month September 2021

© Jason Isaac

I would like to dedicate this photo to former NVR driver and Steam inspector Peter Richardson who sadly passed away last month. A4 60009 Union of South Africa opens up at Longueville Junction during a photo charter in September 2017 with Peter Richardson at the controls. 

Jason Isaac

The Orton Mere Signal Box

A few months ago we published pictures of the inside of Wansford Signal Box. So now it’s the turn of the Orton Mere Signal Box.

Now I know it’s not very large, and I still remember when we had the allotment at the station a visitor asking me if it was a potting shed.

So here are some internal shots of the box.

The box that holds the Staff.
The train register
The signal leavers and instruments.
Signal leavers, instruments and diagram of signal layout at the station

Pictures © Keith Parkinson. My thanks to Keith for taking and sending me the pictures.

The Wansford Booking Office.

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.

The Booking Hall.
Where you part with your money.
The nerve centre.
You too can have one of these for a couple of pounds!

So there you have it, the hub of the station on running days.

All images are © Kim Shaw.

Bahamas on the Nene Valley Railway

This weekend saw the locomotive Bahamas running on the line.

Here are four pictures of the locomotive kindly sent to me by Thomas Woolley.

© Thomas Woolley
© Thomas Woolley
© Thomas Woolley
© Thomas Woolley

Well it’s here!

The locomotive Bahamas arrived yesterday, and is with us over a couple of weeks.

It’s pulling services on 21st & 22nd plus 28th, 29th &30th over August bank Holiday as well as other events and driver experience.

Have a look on the main web site for event details and timetable. If your looking for a good day out then please come, travel behind the locomotive and support the railway.

Should you just be planning to visit and take pictures please remember to buy a platform ticket etc. It’s cost a lot of money to bring the loco in and none paying visitors will do nothing to ensure the weekend is a success and enable us to bring in more locomotives.

Here’s to a great visit by the locomotive.

Just one of those days

Occasionally we have a day where everything aligns and it’s as near a perfect day as you can get.

Yesterday August 4th was such a day.

The weather was just right, not too hot, not too cold.
The trains all ran to within a minute of time and we were busy.

It was a perfect day, and here’s to many more of them as we trundle through summer.

If you were one of the visitors who travelled yesterday, we hope you enjoyed the experience and come and visit us again soon.

It’s big loco time.

One thing that’s always popular with volunteers and visitors alike is the visit of a big loco.

The 15th August sees the arrival of the locomotive “Bahamas.”

Now I could wax lyrical about all the events that it will be doing whilst it’s with us, but instead please look at the main railway web page at www.nvr.org.uk for the latest information.

If you can’t visit the railway and experience a ride behind the locomotive then please remember the cameras we have via Railcam covering Wansford and Orton Mere. The Railcam site is at www.railcam.uk. If you are not a member of Railcam then one of our two Wansford cams can be seen on YouTube.

Here is the YouTube feed of our main Wansford cam.

It will be a super visit so please come along to one of the events and travel behind this superb locomotive. As good as they are cameras are no substitute for a trip behind a locomotive.

I will be on the YouTube cam chat on most of the Bahama running days so if you have any questions or queries then please give “Old Arkwright” a yell. Though please note I can’t deal with ticket or booking enquiries.