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'Peterborough'
'BR 1970-1999'
About Peterborough
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Peterborough 2014 till today and Peterborough 2000 till 2013 and Peterborough 1970s till 1999 (BR)
The old Great Northern station at Peterborough.
The line from Stamford comes into Peterborough from the northwest and then runs parallel to the East Coast Main line from Helpston. The Midland Railway and then the L.M.S ran this line.
From the northeast the line from Spalding which was built by the G.N.R. from Boston and Doncaster joins the East Coast main line at Werrington junction. This line from Spalding was the main line north before the line from Peterborough to Newark and Retford and Doncaster was built.
The East Coast main line (ECML) passes under the "Stoke Parkway" (A47) road bridge at Walton in the north of Peterborough, this road bridge was build on what was the site of the M&G.N. railway bridge. This was the line from Sutton Bridge that used to come into Peterborough here. The A47 uses some the track bed of the M&GN from Walton to Eye Village.
Class 55018 in platform 4 at Peterborough
From the southeast the line from March built by E.C.R. opened on 10th Dec 1846 comes in to Peterborough over the "Black Bridge" which was destroyed by a fire in 1963, this was then rebuilt in wood using the timbers below the water line that had not been burned. Later on a new bridge was built.
The lines passes the site of the now closed East station next to the Peterborough football ground. This line then goes under the ECML and turns north over the River Nene on a curved bridge next to the Nene Valley's Railway Peterbough station.
When the East station was open The L.N.W.R line to Northampton and Rugby which is now the Nene Valley Railway joined onto the March line at the East station.
A new station for the Nene Valley railway has been made on the site of the L.N.W.R. engine sheds. This station is about 400 yards from the March line and is within easy working distance from the town and the North station. The NVR has a station at Orton Mere which is in also in Peterborough under the parkway bridge road bridge next to the River Nene.
Orton Mere station has two platforms, one of which can use the line from the ECML at Fletton Junction. This line gives the Nene Valley a mainline connection. This station is also in Peterborough.
The next NVR station was called Orton by L.N.W.R. The NVR station on the site is called Ferry Meadows by the NVR after the new country park here. This station is now also in Peterborough (it was out in country when it was open, with no houses unlike today). Caster station has not been reopened. The line then runs to "Wansford" next to the A.1, where the headquarters and the engine sheds are.
A pair of class 31s coming into platform 4 at Peterborough in BR days on a railtour
To the south and east of Peterborough brick yards were every were. All the sidings to these yards have now gone, so have the brick yards at Fletton and along the ECML to Yaxley . (Whitlesea east of Peterborough now has the only open brick works near to Peterborough) but these are not now rail connected with all the bricks going out by road)
Fletton Junction is were the NVR use this junction for visiting trains to the NVR. In the 1970s and 1980s a line also left the ECML here to serve the fly ash trains. This line had a large loop round a lake, which had been a brick pit. The trains were merry go round, but used presflow type cement type wagons. This fly ash came from coal fired power stations and was used to fill in the brick pits ready for the new Hampton Township on land south of Peterborough. Houses are now being built on this land. The large Tesco store is on land also reclaimed.
On Tuesday 13th December 2011 Network Rail announced that a 43 million pound upgrade of Peterborough railway station was to start in April 2012 and was to be completed by December 2013 (This upgrade was still ongoing in Feruary 2014, and was not done till April 2014.)
This upgrade has now increased the numer of platforms to 7 and includes new lifts to each platform. There were no lifts to any platform at Peterborough be for.
The amount of use these lifts were getting from people during a visit in February 2014 with large cases and ladys with push chairs shows how much they were needed. Older people and those with wheel chairs were also finding these lifts a great help. We have to wonder why it took so long to put them in.
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