Origins In 1845, the
London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) company was given parliamentary assent to construct a line from
Blisworth in Northamptonshire to
Peterborough. Completed in 1847, it was Peterborough's first railway line. It terminated at Peterborough, later
'Peterborough East' station. The line was of little significance until the late 19th century, when the
London & North Western Railway (L&NWR), which had absorbed the L&BR, constructed a line via Nassington and King's Cliffe to
Seaton, below
Welland Viaduct. This turned
Wansford, previously an unimportant village station, into a major junction. Its importance increased a few years later when the Great Northern Railway constructed another line via
Sutton,
Southorpe and
Barnack to
Stamford, on the
Midland Railway line. In 1884 the line received a royal visit when the royal family travelled from Peterborough to Barnwell, some beyond Wansford, to visit
Barnwell Manor, home of the then
Duke of Gloucester. The station building is now preserved at Wansford station on the NVR, and is known as the Barnwell building. Between 1900 and the 1960s, the line formed an important connection from
Norwich,
Cambridge and eastern England to
Northampton and the Midlands. The line was generally acknowledged to be a secondary main line and frequently saw large engines such as
Black 5s and
B1s. However, the NVR was one of the last passenger line closures of the
Dr Beeching era, services to Northampton and Rugby having ceased in 1964 and 1966 respectively. It remained open until 1972 for freight traffic only.
Society formed In 1968, the Rev. Richard Paten had bought
BR Standard Class 5 4-6-0 locomotive, number
73050, for its scrap value of £3,000. His intention had been to exhibit it outside Peterborough Technology College as a monument to Peterborough's railway history. However, the locomotive was found to be in good working order, and there was much opposition to the idea of the engine being "stuffed", and it was decided to restore it to full working order. On 28 March 1969, the Peterborough Branch of the East Anglian Locomotive Society was formed, with the intention of purchasing and restoring the BR Pacific locomotive, number
BR Standard Class 7 70000 Britannia. By 1970, the branch was strong enough to operate independently as the Peterborough Locomotive Society (PLS). In 1971,
73050 was moved to the
British Sugar Corporation's sidings at
Fletton, where it was joined by
Hunslet 0-6-0 locomotive 'Jack's Green'. Later that year, the PLS held a meeting at which the group's name was changed to 'Peterborough Railway Society' and the idea of the Nene Valley Railway was formally launched.
Purchase of line and locomotives In 1974, the
Peterborough Development Corporation (PDC) bought the Nene Valley line between Longville and
Yarwell Junctions and it began leasing it to the PRS to operate the railway – a major milestone in the society's history. When the PRS acquired the line, the intention was to work the line with British locomotives and stock. However, enthusiasts from other railways and preservation societies had already acquired almost all of the serviceable ex-BR locomotives – all that was left was a collection of rusting hulks. Apart from
73050, the society's locomotives were mostly small, industrial shunting engines and therefore not suitable for the round trip. Ex-BR rolling stock was also in very short supply following the disposal of most pre-nationalisation (pre-1948) stock. The PDC, having paid out a considerable sum of money for the line, was anxious that trains should start running as soon as possible – certainly before the opening of the new
Nene Park in 1978. However, with the PRC's lack of stock and locomotives this looked highly improbable. In 1973, PRS member Richard Hurlock had approached the society for a home for his ex-
Swedish State Railways (SJ)
class S1 2-6-4T oil-fired locomotive, number
1928. Because the engine was higher and wider than British stock, it was to be a static exhibition only. During 1974, it was realised that the use of foreign stock and engines could answer the NVR's aspirations. After a feasibility study was carried out, it was discovered that only one bridge would have to be demolished to allow the running to continental
loading gauge. Some reductions would also have to be made to the width of the platforms. In 1973, BR gave PRS permission to use Wansford signal box and, in September of that year, the first items of stock arrived at the PRS depot.
Operation Before the stock could be moved from the BSC depot to Wansford, the missing of the Fletton Loop had to be rebuilt, allowing access to the Nene Valley line. The track was completed in March 1974 and the stock moved to Wansford in time for the Easter weekend, when the new 'Wansford Steam Centre' opened for the first time. Between 1974 and 1977, the line was upgraded to passenger-carrying standard and the first passenger train ran on 1 June 1977, hauled by the 'Nord 3.628' – a French 4-6-0 locomotive and 'SJ 1178' – another Swedish tank engine, pulling a set of
ex-BR electrical multiple unit coaches owned by the Southern Electric Group.
Extension to Peterborough In the early 1980s, the NVR decided to extend its running line, which then terminated at Orton Mere station, along the route of the original Nene Valley Line to a new station west of the East Coast Main Line, adjacent to the new
Railworld Museum. Peterborough Nene Valley opened, for the first time, on the Late Spring Bank Holiday weekend of 26 May 1986. This extended the NVR to its current length, .
Future In 2024, the Nene Valley Railway and
Railworld Nature Reserve acquired the former
Wansford Road Station. Built in 1869, it served the branch line to
Stamford, Lincolnshire until it closed in 1929. In 2022, the station and platform were facing demolition by
National Highways for the new
dual carriageway between Wansford and Sutton. By mid 2025 it had been dismantled stone by stone and reconstructed at the eastern end of the railway. ==Stations==