All Steamed Up Over New faces

The weathermen promised a barbeque summer, and it’s chucked it down ever since. Now they tell me it’s going to rain so much that I need to start dusting off my build-your-own-ark kit. So when I woke up to a cloudless sky with the sun beaming down on Grantham, I thought that perhaps the met office had got it wrong yet again. They really ought to move into an office with windows. Anyway, I decided that it would be as good a day as any to venture down to Peterborough and the Nene Valley Railway. I’ve been playing around with the movie function on my camera lately, so I decided to have a bash at creating an actual short film based on a journey along the preserved railway line that runs from Wansford to Peterborough. I regularly travel down to Peterborough when I’m working and pass over the railway close to Wansford Station. I keep promising myself to pop down for a day out - well, today was that day!

Wansford Station

I was up and out early doors and arrived at Wansford as the railway was waking up. It is one of the busiest weekends in the year, so the NVR was running a two train service with both a steam and diesel hauled train in operation, as well as Thomas The Tank Engine running a shuttle service for the kids.

I made a few video clips as the trains were shunted and assembled for the day, and then spent the rest of the morning travelling the whole line, firstly behind the steam loco City of Peterborough, and secondly with Deltic D9009 Alycidon.

City of Peterborough shunts spare Royal Mail stock before joining its train.

Preparing Alycidon for service.

I used these trains to film passing scenery, as well as scout out some likely locations for afternoon lineside filming. But there was a snag. The NVR had carried the Thomas idea to a bizarre conclusion, by sticking faces on the front of every loco, and just about anything else that could move. Now, I’m no killjoy. Well, yes I am, but that’s not part of the remit here. I think that Thomas themes are an excellent idea, as they promote interest in railways in a positive manner and introduce families to rail travel when the kids have never seen anything other than the interior of their Citroen Picasso before. It also brings in much needed and valuable revenue to the railways themselves. There was even a Fat Controller in full uniform interacting with the kids, although to keep Gordon Brown happy he wasn’t the Fat Controller, of course. He was the not-obese-but-not-a-size-zero-waif-who-eats-five-a-day-and-exercises-regularly-Controller. Thomas was running with two coaches representing Annie & Clarabel on a shuttle service between Wansford and Yarwell, and it all made for a great atmosphere at Wansford. I thought about changing the tone of my film and trying my hand at Thomas does Annie & Clarabel in Yarwell Tunnel, but that's just how my mind works.

So, I had arrived during a Thomas weekend. Fine - but please, please, keep it relevant. Sticking funny faces on the mainline stuff working down to Peterborough was out of context and just looked ridiculous. It also buggered up most of my interesting photo locations.

I cycled out to this overbridge and waited half an hour for this shot as the location was great - and yes, I'd forgotten which end of the loco the face was on. Reverend Awdry has much to answer for.

Still, these things are sent to try us, and I just worked around the problem. Once I’d done the two return trips, I reclaimed the car from Wansford, drove round to Ferry Meadows in the nearby Nene Park - which, incidentally is well worth a visit in its own right - took my bike out of the back and set off to see the railway from a different perspective. The line runs through the Nene Park for several miles, and a cycle track runs alongside it for much of the route so there were plenty of photo opportunities to be found. After a few locations were tried out I then returned the bike to the car, drove back to Wansford in order to catch the final train of the day for the short trip to Yarwell behind City of Peterborough. This involved travelling through Yarwell Tunnel, as a tunnel shot was necessary to include in my forthcoming epic movie!

All in all it was a good day out. The NVR staff were all friendly and knowledgeable and the atmosphere on the stations and trains was welcoming. I would definitely return, but only if they get rid of those damn faces!

You could almost be back in the early sixties here. Not that I was
around in those days, but I imagine it looked something like this.