15th March 2021 · ‘The Railways of Northamptonshire Part 6’

Presenter: Robin Cullop

This part covers two branch lines – Stamford to Wansford and the small part of the M&GN near Peterborough to Thorney. Thorney is just in Northamptonshire (Soke of Peterborough) and we were treated to pictures of both stations at Stamford, the former GNR station at Stamford East featuring a C12 4-4-2T on the shuttle to Essendine.. From Peterborough we then traversed the Midland and Great Northern line over the “Rainbow Bridge” north of Peterborough where the M&GN crossed the Midland Railway line to Stamford and the Great Northern Line to Grantham.. The line from Peterborough was closed in 1961 and the “Rainbow Bridge” was demolished. The remainder of the line was then worked from the east, principally to serve a brickworks and waa closed in 1966

We then went to the Midland main line from Glendon South Junction on the direct line towards Nottingham with photos of steam traction interspersed with some photos of modern day traction, including pictures on the Welland (Harringworth) viaduct with its 82 arches as far as Manton (which is the last station on the line in the county). Coming South the line through the Corby cutting was shown including pictures of the Beyer-Garrats from Cricklewood depot that were used in the days when the Corby steelworks was still in operation.

We then explored the Great Central main line southwards from Rugby through Braunston and Willoughby to Charwelton (where the tunnel has been converted into an aerodynamic testing facility) to Woodford Halse. We saw several pictures of the ex-WD 2-8-0 locos, many of which were allocated to Woodford depot after nationalisation. We then diverted over the GCR branch to Banbury before returning to the main line to Brackley.

The talk was illustrated throughout with high quality of photographs taken over the years of stations, people and trains.

A very enjoyable and informative talk which was very much appreciated by the 24 attendees

A vote of thanks was given to the speaker by the Chairman of the Branch, Richard Deacon.