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.
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..
In the following chapters I will be showing you practically all the best and popular spots to see trains passing from public spots from a collection of photos spanning 10 years taken in all 4 seasons. We start at the west of the line at Yarwell Junction and head east to the other end at Peterborough Nene Valley. In this chapter will focus on Yarwell and Wansford.
One of my favourite spots to photograph trains the west portal of Yarwell Tunnel taken from the public viewing area which is reachable via a footpath from Yarwell station and beyond from Nassington village.
Visiting Peckett 1438 enters Yarwell Tunnel with a demonstration freight during the 2013 Autumn Gala.
Here we see visiting 56xx 5619 exiting Yarwell Tunnel July 2018.
With original station building, level crossing gates, superb signal gantry, old railway cottages and original signal box still on its original foundations plus river crossing Wansford station evokes the atmosphere from golden age of steam. Its amount of character makes a popular station for photographic charters.
A class of the loco that would of probably worked the line in steam days Ivatt 2MT 46521 adds to the atmosphere parked in front of the signal gantry with the old railway cottages to the left and signal box in the background during the 2016 Autumn Gala.
A4 60009 Union of South Africa stands in front of the original Wansford station building during a photo charter in September 2017.
N2 1744 departs Wansford with the early morning sun capturing its reflection nicely in the river during the Autumn Steam Gala 2015.
Deltic 55022 Royal Scots Grey running as scrapped classmate 55007 Pinza crosses the Nene entering Wansford.
Now the keen ones amongst you will have seen the tickets I have posted on here.
Well we also displayed them at Orton Mere each printed to A4 size.
Over the years we lost count of the number of people who would look at the ticket in A4 size and then mutter… The tickets were much bigger in those days!!!
Before you ask it was both men and women who commented.
One of the comments I often come across from visitors is the fact that we do the paper tickets and not the old style Edmondson tickets.
The main reason is of course cost, the old style tickets with serial numbers on are not cheap to produce.
So to hark back to the days when everything was rosy and the sun always shone in the summer here is a ticket from Wansford to Peterborough & return.
Peterborough to Wansford and return.
Sometimes amazing things happened, for example Peterborough Utd actually progressed in the FA cup. For the football fans amongst you here is a ticket from the 1960’s Peterborough to Sheffield for a football match. I wonder how many fans still have one of these tickets?
Peterborough to Sheffield and return
I will see what other ticket images I can dig out and will post here if I think they will be of interest. If you have any and would be happy to have them reproduced here then please contact me. The email address is in the right hand column .
