Posts

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Replacing the sleepers, Help required.

As a local Registered Charity (No. 263617) we need a little HELP to keep us running at our desired speed after a rough couple of years.

Can you spare a day or two to help our One Man Band Employed Track Manager & his Merry Team of 5 to 10 Strong Team of willing volunteers to change 500 sleepers on our tracks?

We have set aside 3 weeks in our running schedule to get this work completed, so if you are a local business and can spare a few willing people who are fit and able please message us and we look forward to welcoming you to Nene Valley Railway. Refreshments and facilities will be provided.

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The four days of Easter

Easter can be a funny time of year, it’s success or otherwise is very dependent on the weather. Many say it always seems colder on Easter weekends.

Anyway, this year was different, we had four nice days weather wise and on all four days 92 Squadron provided hauling of all services.

92 Squadron at Wansford station. © Chris Walker

It does no harm to be running a large locomotive on busy weekends. 92 Squadron did us proud. All services were almost to or on time.

For me personally it seemed quite strange not to be at a station, but circumstances dictate otherwise. So as with other running days we manned the Webcam and chat and we were busy there instead with people after anything from a chat to specific information.

The trains were busy and the visitors happy judging from the feedback we got on the cam. Nice to see smiling faces as the train passes.

Credit must be given to all the working members who were working over the weekend, the railway was shown at it’s best.

I could of course post some pictures of previous Easter holidays complete with a mixture of the following, rain, sleet or snow but that would not be fair. We had a super weekend on the railway and hopefully it will be the first of many in the future.

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Back in the day.

One question that often pops up is Do we have any famous locomotives visit from the main line?

The answer of course is yes, and you just have to do a search to find any number of pictures.

But here is one taken some years ago, it shows Britannia at Orton Mere.

This is of course in the early days and those who know the station will see how open it used to be before the park was developed. How the place has changed over the years.

Orton Mere Station with Britannia.
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A Jubilee for a Queens Jubilee

The Railway is pleased to announce after a great deal of work that Jubilee No 45596 Bahamas will be visiting the NVR from the 4th to the 10th of June.

The locomotive during this time will work a Jubilee Special service on Sunday 5th June as part of the NVR Jubilee event, the locomotive will undertake main line running while at the NVR

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The Wansford Box again

Some time ago I put some excellent pictures of the Wansford Box on the blog. Since then I have had requests for more pictures of the internal area.
So here they all are © Matthew Alden Farrow and my thanks to him for the images.

The local diagram for the box.
The view to the East towards Peterborough.
Another closer view towards the East across the River Nene.
The length of the box looking West towards the station.
The length of the box and the frame looking East over the river
Matt at work
The wheel that’s turned to open and close the crossing gates
Matt at work again, this will give some idea of the size of the wheel

We hope to bring more pictures around Wansford and the other stations very shortly.

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Engines large and small.

Saturday 26th March was a day of not only our Mothering Sunday cream tea service, but also a day of engines large and small

Let’s start with the large, here is the Polish tank engine about to leave Wansford with the cream tea service to Peterborough Nene Valley.

© Matthew Alden Farrow

Now we have a mixture of large and small as the Peak 45041 stands at platform two prior to departure and a parade of small steam engines pass over the level crossing

Now a selection of pictures of the small steam engines which proved very popular.

Super weather for a super day.
My thanks to Matt for the excellent images.

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The station cottages

Now anybody who has visited Wansford station will have seen the station cottages next door.

But people who have only seen Wansford either via pictures in a magazine or on the net, or via the Wansford webcams may not know what they are.

We are often asked on the cam what they are when they are mentioned during chat. They are outside the view of the webcam.

So here is a picture of the station cottages on a nice sunny spring Saturday.

© Matthew Alden-Farrow

They are typical railway cottages of the era and the area. Many people comment as to how they would like to live in one and have the trains on their doorstep.

My thanks to Matt for the picture.

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Cream Tea time.

Tomorrow (Saturday) sees the railway running the popular cream tea service.

This is one of the regular events on the railway that’s always popular. So we have three runs with a main diesel service and two runs with a steam cream tea service.

The services will be passing at Orton Mere, so nice to see both lines in use there.

If you’re interested in the cream tea service then take a look at the main site for more details.