Railways around Peterborough and The National Rail Network & Heritage railways in the UK
ukrailways1970tilltoday.me.uk
Peterborough Railways
About Peterborough Railways
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Railways around Peterborough and The National Rail Network & Heritage railways in the UK
ukrailways1970tilltoday.me.uk
Peterborough Railways
About Peterborough Railways
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UK National railway |
Peterborough |
Heritage Railways |
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ABOUT PETERBOROUGH RAILWAYS
 East Coast class 91103 coming into platform 4 on the 2nd July 2014 with new platform 3 in the background.
Peterborough today has one main station, Peterborough. It was called Peterborough North. This was because there used to be a second station Peterborough East. Today It also has a 2nd station Peterborough Nene Valley Railway station.
 The old Great Northern station. In steam days there was a very large MPD at New England and a second one at Spittle Bridge on the site of the power signal box. There was also a Engine shed at the East station (still standing) and also there was a LNWR engine shed were NVR Peterborough station is.
Westwood yard yard was full of sidings filled with full and empty coal wagons Most have now gone, and Westwood yard is but just a handful of sidings now.
The main line though Peterborough is the East Coast Main Line (ECML) from London Kings Cross station to Edinburgh. The G.N.R and then the L.N.E.R used to run this line. This line has now been electrified, and is one of the top railways in the U.K. This line runs from the south to North.
From December 2007 National Express took over the East Coast rail service from London to Scotland and Leeds previously operated by GNER. Its trains were branded National Express East Coast (NXEC)
East Coast then ran the trains after Natinal Express gave up or walked away.
Virgin East coast now run these trains,
First Capital Connect used to operates the commuter or loal trains between London and Peterborough. WAGN had run these the commuter trains from Peterborough to London be for First Capital Connect.
Since September 2014 Govia Thameslink Railway, has replaced First Capital Connect as the train operator for the Great Northern lines as well as the Thameslink routes from Bedford. The class 365s 317s and 321s EMUs on the services from Peterborough now have the wording "Great Northern" on them.
Between 2010 and 2014 the station has had some more platforms added see about the new platforms at Peterborough 2014 till today for details
 Map of Peterborough
(not to scale)
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.
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.
 WAGN class 365516 in platform 2 at Peterborough in 2004
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.
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 my 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.
See Peterborough 2014 till today for more detail on these new platforms
I have been adding details and changed the Peterborough part of this web site as the station was being rebuilt, and will try update the site as it all becomes finished.
I hope this page helps any one who has not been to Peterborough, some I dear of the layout of Peterborough railways. More details are on each page on the site.
This page is a short over view with more details are on each page of the many on Peterborough on this site.
Peterborough on this site is in now in three main parts Peterborough 2014 till today and Peterborough 2000 till 2013 and Peterborough 1970s till 1999(BR)
 Page updated 27/2/2018
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This website is Ukrailways1970tilltoday.me.uk it is on railways, but it is not just on trains, but all things railways, with photos, which I have taken from the 1970s till now. I take photos of all things railways, steam diesel and electric trains, signal boxes, wagons any thing that is on the National Rail network, which was BR when I started taken photos.
Today EWS, East Coast, Central trains and EWS are just some of the names on the trains. The name on the train does not mean, thats whos train it is these days. These names keep changing, but that means I have to keep taking photos. I also take photos of preserved railways with steam diesel and electric trains.There is lots more to add and I keep taking More!
