Postcards.

One thing that’s always popular when visiting somewhere is to buy a postcard, and the railway sells lots of them every year.

Well here are two that were available many years ago advertising Peterborough.

As can be seen from the second image postcards were often colourful or though perhaps basic in their content.

Some of these older cards are very collectable these days, I wonder how many that are now worth money have been thrown away or destroyed over the years?

Only in the summer, or is it?

Without doubt the biggest seller in the summer is ice cream.
Certainly when I ran Orton Mere we went through the stuff quick enough.
Ice cream generally is looked upon as something just for the summer. But is it?
In my experience the answer is no it’s not just for summer.

I rapidly learnt several things.

If you have too much choice your sales can go down!
Both children and adults like choice in the freezer, but not too much choice. They get to the stage where they can’t make up their mind and get nothing, children and pensioners are the worse for this.

If you don’t have what they want they will have what you’ve got.
This was noticeable and it was very rare if I did not have what they wanted that they went away with nothing.

Magnums.
I could have filled the freezer with twelve different varieties of Magnum and they would have been happy. They always sold first.

You don’t need heat to sell ice cream.
Now you might think this a strange one, but we proved time and time again the most important thing you needed to sell anything out of the freezer was sunshine. I have sold ice cream when there was snow on the ground and the sun was shining. I remember a couple with dogs sitting under the canopy one Sunday eating ice cream with the snow all around them and their dogs covered in the stuff. They had one each sat there and then came in for a second each.

The choice of little old ladies.
I lost count of the little old ladies who came in and the first thing thay asked was. “Do you have choc ices?” They were the thing they always wanted. One old lady once told me quite straight faced that having a choc ice took her back to when she was young on the back row of the pictures. She uttered the immortal words. “I remember it like yesterday, first the choc ice and then a good grope!” I was lost for words, which even I will admit is rare for me.

So there you have it it’s out in the open. Ice cream is not just for summer.

Going Green…

Here is City of Peterborough in green livery.

© Paddy Knight

Now personally I prefer this livery to black, but of course it all comes down to personal taste.

Which do you prefer I wonder?

Thomas’ weekend adventure

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

© Don Osborn
© Don Osborn
© Don Osborn

The highlight of the year for younger visitors.

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.

Thomas at Orton Mere Station 2019.

Contributions.

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.

Train departures from Wansford on weekdays in April 1910.

Here is a timetable of services from 1910.
It can be interesting to use Google Earth or similar and trace the trackbed of the old line and try to find these stations.

DepartureGoing toCalling atArrivalOperator
03.54Peterborough EastPeterborough East04.05LNWR
06.31Northampton CastleElton, Oundle, Barnwell, Thorpe, Thrapston, Ringstead & Addington, Higham Ferrers & Irthlingborough, Ditchford, Wellingborough, Castle Ashby & Earls Barton, Billing, Northampton Bridge Street, Northampton Castle08.00LNWR
08.25Northampton CastleElton, Oundle, Barnwell, Thorpe, Thrapston, Ringstead & Addington, Higham Ferrers & Irthlingborough, Ditchford, Wellingborough, Castle Ashby & Earls Barton, Billing, Northampton Bridge Street, Northampton Castle09.50LNWR
08.29Peterborough NorthCastor, Overton, Peterborough North08.48GNR
08.40Peterborough EastCastor, Overton, Peterborough East09.04LNWR
08.45RugbyNassington, King’s Cliffe, Wakerley & Barrowden, Seaton, Rockingham, Ashley & Weston, Market Harborough, Lubenham, Theddingworth, Welford & Lutterworth, Yelverton & Stanford Park, Lilbourne, Clifton Mill, Rugby10.34LNWR
08.50Stamford EastWansford Road, Ufford Bridge, Barnack, Stamford East09.15GNR
09.48Leicester Belgrave RoadNassington, King’s Cliffe, Wakerley & Barrowden, Seaton, Rockingham, Medbourne, Hallaton, East Norton, Tilton, Loseby, Ingersby, Thurnby & Scraptoft, Humberstone, Leicester Belgrave Road11.22GNR
10.19Peterborough EastCastor, Peterborough East10.37LNWR
10.50Peterborough EastOverton, Peterborough East11.05LNWR
10.52Stamford EastWansford Road, Ufford Bridge, Barnack, Stamford East11.15GNR
11.09Northampton CastleElton, Oundle, Barnwell, Thorpe, Thrapston, Ringstead & Addington, Higham Ferrers & Irthlingborough, Ditchford, Wellingborough, Castle Ashby & Earls Barton, Billing, Northampton Bridge Street, Northampton Castle12.35LNWR
11.42RugbyNassington, King’s Cliffe, Wakerley & Barrowden, Seaton, Rockingham, Ashley & Weston, Market Harborough, Lubenham, Theddingworth, Welford & Lutterworth, Yelverton & Stanford Park, Lilbourne, Clifton Mill, Rugby13.30LNWR
11.47Peterborough NorthCastor, Overton, Peterborough North12.06GNR
11.55Stamford EastWansford Road, Ufford Bridge, Barnack, Stamford East12.20GNR
12.28Peterborough EastPeterborough East12.40LNWR
13.05
Fri only
Stamford EastWansford Road, Ufford Bridge, Barnack, Stamford East13.28GNR
13.52Peterborough EastCastor, Overton, Peterborough East14.12LNWR
14.14Northampton CastleElton, Oundle, Barnwell, Thorpe, Thrapston, Ringstead & Addington, Higham Ferrers & Irthlingborough, Ditchford, Wellingborough, Castle Ashby & Earls Barton, Billing, Northampton Bridge Street, Northampton Castle15.40LNWR
14.37Leicester Belgrave RoadNassington, King’s Cliffe, Wakerley & Barrowden, Seaton, Rockingham, Medbourne, Hallaton, East Norton, Tilton, Loseby, Ingersby, Thurnby & Scraptoft, Humberstone, Leicester Belgrave Road16.10GNR
14.37Stamford EastWansford Road, Ufford Bridge, Barnack, Stamford East15.02GNR
14.49Peterborough EastOverton, Peterborough East15.05LNWR
15.56Stamford EastWansford Road, Ufford Bridge, Barnack, Stamford East16.21GNR
16.02Northampton CastleElton, Oundle, Barnwell, Thorpe, Thrapston, Ringstead & Addington, Higham Ferrers & Irthlingborough, Ditchford, Wellingborough, Castle Ashby & Earls Barton, Billing, Northampton Bridge Street, Northampton Castle17.38LNWR
16.16Peterborough EastCastor, Overton, Peterborough East16.33LNWR
16.37RugbyNassington, King’s Cliffe, Wakerley & Barrowden, Seaton, Rockingham, Ashley & Weston, Market Harborough, Lubenham, Theddingworth, Welford & Lutterworth, Yelverton & Stanford Park, Lilbourne, Clifton Mill, Rugby18.23LNWR
17.30Peterborough NorthCastor, Peterborough North17.46GNR
18.37Northampton CastleElton, Oundle, Barnwell, Thorpe, Thrapston, Ringstead & Addington, Higham Ferrers & Irthlingborough, Ditchford, Wellingborough, Castle Ashby & Earls Barton, Billing, Northampton Bridge Street, Northampton Castle20.05LNWR
18.40Stamford EastWansford Road, Ufford Bridge, Barnack, Stamford East19.03GNR
19.37Peterborough EastCastor, Overton, Peterborough East19.58LNWR
19.42Leicester Belgrave RoadNassington, King’s Cliffe, Wakerley & Barrowden, Seaton, Rockingham, Medbourne, Hallaton, East Norton, Tilton, Loseby, Ingersby, Thurnby & Scraptoft, Humberstone, Leicester Belgrave Road21.11GNR
19.55Stamford EastWansford Road, Ufford Bridge, Barnack, Stamford East20.20GNR
20.11RugbySeaton, Market Harborough, Welford & Lutterworth, Rugby21.32LNWR
22.01Peterborough EastPeterborough East22.15LNWR
22.35Peterborough EastPeterborough East22.48LNWR
The table above shows the train departures from Wansford on weekdays in April 1910.

The bridge on The Fletton Loop

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.

Maintenance card for Botolph Bridge

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!!

Home from School for Christmas.

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.

School special ticket Oundle School to Peterborough & return