The Northampton to Peterborough line was the first railway through the territory that it penetrated. Naturally later railways either crossed it or made junctions with it.
Peterborough and Wansford As described above, the line used the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) station at Peterborough at first, and in fact was the only railway in the area. The ECR completed its line from the east there the following year, 1846, joined by the Midland Railway line from Stamford later the same year. The Great Northern Railway made its line to and through Peterborough in 1850. The
Stamford and Essendine Railway, an affiliate of the GNR, had a branch to Stamford from the GNR main line, and in 1867 it opened an extension joining the Northampton – Peterborough line at Wansford. It was contemplated that this would be the starting point for a long-distance line, but that idea came to nothing. The connection at Wansford was actually suspended from 1870 to 1879, and the Stamford line used its own station short of the junction. Matters were resolved and the connection was made again from 1879. Nevertheless, that line was never successful and it closed in 1931. The LNWR itself made a branch line from Wansford to
Seaton and beyond to
Market Harborough, opening in 1879. This was more successful than the S&ER line, but closed in 1968.
Thrapston and Wellingborough area At Thrapston the line was crossed by the
Kettering, Thrapston and Huntingdon Railway, which opened in 1866. It was a dependency of the Midland Railway, and was absorbed by that company in 1897. It made no connection with the Northampton and Peterborough line, and had its own separate Thrapston station. The N&P line had a
Higham Ferrers station, although it was inconveniently located and some distance from the town. The people of
Higham Ferrers and
Rushden pressed for a better station location, and it was the Midland Railway that provided it, the
Higham Ferrers branch line, opened in 1893. The LNWR eventually conceded the reality of the location of their own "Higham Ferrers" station and renamed it Irthlingborough in 1910. Even so, the stations were not well sited for Rushden and Higham Ferrers, and their location on a branch line from
Wellingborough made them unpopular for passenger journeys. That branch closed to passengers in 1959, and completely in 1969. The Midland Railway main line referred to crossed over the N&P line to the east of Wellingborough; it opened in 1857, and a spur connection trailed into the N&P line from it, opened in 1859. It was closed in 1966.
Northampton connections Approaching Northampton the Midland Railway
Bedford branch ran in from the south-east and crossed over the N&P line, running alongside it on the north side to Hardingstone Junction, and then diverging to a Northampton terminus, called
St John's Street from 1924. This was a well-sited central station for the town, but it was inconvenient from the railway operational point of view and it was closed by the LMS railway in 1939. The Bedford line closed in 1968, but a Works remained in existence until 1988, and was served by a stub of the branch. When the main part of the N&P line closed, a connection was retained from
Northampton Castle station and the Duston curve. There was a triangular junction at Duston leading northwards to Northampton Castle station, which was built on the Northampton Loop, a north–south connection off the Birmingham main line, giving Northampton a service on that axis. It opened in 1859 and the Duston West Curve was provided then; it closed in 1969; the east curve was opened in 1879 and continued until 1988. ==Daimler railcar==