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

Services running again

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.

Every journey needs a first step.

I believe it’s the Irish who have the saying “Every journey needs a first step.” Well this is the first step for the Official Nene Valley Railway Blog. So welcome…..

The first thing you will notice is a lack of content, but after all this is just the first step.

As the weeks go by the blog will fill up with comments, stories and a bit of history of the NVR. Not just text but pictures as well.

So we are glad you’re here for the journey.

If you have any comments then click on the link at the bottom of the blog to send us comments, we will welcome them from members, working members and non-members alike. If you have any questions or comments then please contact us.

The content will be created and uploaded by a small group from the railway, we are not here to comment on events to come, that’s already done on places such as the offical web site. No, we are planning to look back and hopefully show you things you have not seen before covering the railway, memories and past events often through the eyes of the person writing the article.

So once again welcome, and let the journey commence.