Category: History

Posted on

Charles Swift OBE.

It is with great sadness that I have to share the passing of the Nene Valley Railway’s Vice President Charles Swift OBE.

Charles sat on Peterborough City Council for more than 60 years and served as the youngest ever Mayor of Peterborough. He was also a railwayman starting his career working on steam at New England.

Charles was influential in supporting the foundation of the NVR and remained a great friend of the railway, more latterly in his role of Vice President.

Our condolences go to Charles’ family and many friends.

Mike Kerfoot – Chairman

Posted on

Locomotives at The Nene Valley Railway.

One of the most asked questions is what locomotives are there at the railway.

Well here is a selection, and my thanks to Chris Walker for the images

92 Squadron
The Class 14
The Green Sentinel
The Maroon Sentinel
The Polish Tank Engine
The Swedish Railcar
The Blue Circle
The Pacer
The Peak 45041
Thomas

When you visit the railway if you do not see a specific locomotive then feel free to ask the staff as to its current status.

Posted on

Stamford East to Wansford.

There was once a line between Stamford and Wansford.

The station at Stamford was called Stamford East. The station opened in 1856 and closed to passengers in 1957.

The line between the two stations opened in 1867 and closed in 1929.

Here is what remains of Stamford East, today it is a private residence.

© Thomas Woolley.
Posted on

Getting ready for the weekend.

Thursday to Sunday sees the Queens Platinum Jubilee, and like everywhere else we are celebrating this special occasion.
We have numerous events over the four days culminating with the locomotive Bahamas visiting us and pulling the three services on Sunday.

No doubt this will be popular, when the locomotive was with us before it generated a lot of positive interest.

So whatever you’re doing this Jubilee weekend have a great time, and if you’re visiting the railway look at all we have on offer a visit is so much more than just a train ride.

Posted on

Freight Driver Experience or Things that go bump in the day!

As anybody who supports or visits the railway knows we do driver experience days on a regular basis.

Well today we did something a little different we had a diesel freight driver experience using a selection of wagons and the class 14 locomotive.

It sold out and has shown to be very popular.

So here are a few images of the day.

Crossing the river bridge approaching Wansford © Thomas Woolley.
Crossing the river bridge leaving Wansford © Thomas Woolley.
Leaving Wansford © Thomas Woolley.
Crossing the river as seen from the signal box © Thomas Woolley.
Approaching the river bridge © Thomas Woolley.
Waiting to depart Wansford © Thomas Woolley.
Freight Train awaiting departure from Wansford © Thomas Woolley.
The freight train at Castor © Jon Benton.

As you can see the weather was for the most part nice and sunny.

I am sure that there will be more freight driver experience days in the future.

For those who missed it we will be running freight trains in between the main service on the 1st May with three runs of the freight train.

The wagon group have put in a lot of time and effort into getting the wagons as they are now, and I look forward to seeing more of their work in the future.

Who knows perhaps we may see the Travelling Post Office running again on the line.

Posted on

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.
Posted on

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

Posted on

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.