A day out on Nene Valley Railway

This splendid heritage railway is based in and near Peterborough. It runs from Peterborough Nene Valley station to Yarwell Junction.

It uses part of the original 1845 London and North Western line which ran into Peterborough East station (now demolished)

Peterborough Nene Valley station was built in 1986 as part of the Nene Valley Railway's Peterborough extension. The station is built on its current site because the NVR could not access the original Peterborough East station site

Our Guard for the day was very knowledgeable about the line, the engines, carriages and wagons. 

Wansford station is the headquarters of the Nene Valley Railway. The station was formerly the junction for a branch to Stamford, which separated to the north just east of the river bridge at Wansford

The station opened with the Northampton and Peterborough Railway from Blisworth to Peterborough in 1845. The branch line to Stamford opened in 1867. The route to Rugby became available when the LNWR built a line from Yarwell Junction, west of Wansford tunnel, to their existing 1850 Rugby to Stamford line at Seaton.
 

The Stamford branch closed in 1929, having never properly recovered from the 1926 general strike. The station closed for regular passenger services on 1 July 1957 but passenger services from Peterborough continued to use the line to Northampton until 1964, and to Rugby until 1966

Wansford station and the line immediately either side of it, including the level crossing and the river bridge appeared several times in the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy. 

Bond (played by Roger Moore) drove a Mercedes-Benz car along the railway tracks after its tyres were punctured in pursuit of a train on which the villainous Kamal Khan (Louis Jordan) was transporting a bomb. This scene was scripted as being in East Germany

Wansford signal box was built in 1907 by the London and North Western Railway to replace three smaller boxes. It was originally built with 60 levers and is one of the largest preserved signal boxes in its original location.

The turntable is located behind the new station building, and was built by Ransomes & Rapier of Ipswich in 1933. Originally it was 60 feet (18 m) long and was installed at Bourne in Lincolnshire for use on the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway. 

It continued in use there until 1959 when Bourne shed closed and the turntable was moved to Peterborough East; its last duties being to turn Travelling Post Office (TPO) coaches for use on the East Anglian TPO. In 1977 the turntable moved to Wansford where it was extended by 7 feet (2.1 m) to make it 67 feet (20m) in length
 

These are from Sweden

Yarwell Junction is the current western terminus of the Nene Valley Railway. It opened at Easter 2007. It was formerly the junction of the Peterborough to Northampton and Peterborough to Market Harborough lines.

In April 2006 a track realignment made space for a platform, and this was constructed during 2007. There was never previously a station on the site. The new station is served by footpaths to Nassington and the mill village of Yarwell, but there is no vehicular access

From Yarwell we returned to Peterborough so that we could explore the city centre

Peterborough is on the River Nene (hence Nene Valley!). Human settlement in the area began before the Bronze Age. The Anglo-Saxon period saw the establishment of a monastery, Medeshamstede, which later became Peterborough Cathedral. Peterborough was, from medieval times, administered separately as the Soke of Peterborough. 

Railway lines began operating locally during the 1840s, but it was the 1850 opening of the Great Northern Railway's main line from London to York that transformed Peterborough from a market town to an industrial centre. Coupled with vast local clay deposits, the railway enabled large-scale brick-making and distribution to take place. The area was the UK's leading producer of bricks for much of the twentieth century. 

The Town Hall with its Georgian columns 

Peterborough Cathedral was built on the site of a monastery between 1118 and 1238. Catherine of Aragon - the first wife of Henry VIII - was buried here in 1536. Mary Queen of Scots was buried here in 1587 but James I brought the remains to Westminster Abbey in 1612.

Peterborough Guildhall was built between 1669–1671. The 17th century building is also known as Butter Cross, and is a traditional Market Cross often found in the centre of old market towns. The Guildhall is raised on columns and the open area beneath it used to be occupied by butter and poultry markets

St John the Baptist Church is Peterborough's Parish Church and was dedicated by the Abbot Genge in 1407. During the 16th century its bells sounded for the funerals of Catherine of Aragon in 1536 and Mary Queen of Scots in 1587.

Peterborough Museum was originally the home of the Orme family in the 16th century - they were given the land by Henry VIII in 1536. It was used as Peterborough's first hospital from 1857 until 1928

Monument in the Bishop's Garden ...

... dedicated to Peterborough's first Mayor from 1874-1876

And back to the main line station for my trip home, courtesy of East Coast. A super day out.