Wansford
Station on heritage railway
The new station building at Wansford.
General information
Location	Wansford, Cambridgeshire England
Coordinates	52°34′06″N 0°23′22″W / 52.568325°N 0.389540°W / 52.568325; -0.389540
Grid reference	TL092979
Platforms	2
History
Original company	Northampton and Peterborough Railway
Pre-grouping	London and North Western Railway
Post-grouping	London, Midland and Scottish Railway
Key dates
1845	opened
1 July 1957	closed for passengers
13 July 1964	closed for freight
1977	reopened

Nene Valley Railway
Ely–Peterborough line Peterborough East Peterborough North East Coast Main Line Peterborough Nene Valley Longville Junction Orton Mere Overton for Ferry Meadows Ham Lane Castor Great Northern to Stamford Old Great North Road Wansford Wansford Tunnel (616 yards) Yarwell Junction Northampton and Peterborough Railway London & North Western to Rugby

Wansford railway station is the headquarters of the Nene Valley Railway in Cambridgeshire, England. The station building was opened in 1995 and contains a ticket office, shop, cafe and toilets. The locomotive sheds are located at this station. Also at the station there is a picnic area and children's playground. The station was formerly the junction for a branch to Stamford, which separated to the north just east of the river bridge at Wansford.

Wansford station and the line immediately either side of it, including the level crossing and the river bridge appeared several times in the James Bond film Octopussy.

History

The station opened with the Northampton and Peterborough Railway from Blisworth to Peterborough in 1845. Being located on the Great North Road, it was for a few years the railhead for Grantham, Lincoln, etc., which at this time were not served by any railway lines. The branch line to Stamford opened in 1867. The route to Rugby became available when the LNWR built a line from Yarwell Junction, west of Wansford tunnel, to their existing 1850 Rugby to Stamford line at Seaton. At the same time, the Great Northern began a service from Peterborough North to Leicester Belgrave Road via Wansford, Seaton and the newly opened Great Northern and London and North Western Joint Railway in east Leicestershire. The Leicester trains were stopped as a war economy in 1916. The Stamford branch closed in 1929, having never properly recovered from the 1926 general strike. The station closed for regular passenger services on 1 July 1957 but passenger services from Peterborough continued to use the line to Northampton until 1964, and to Rugby until 1966. The Rugby line remained open for freight as far as the sand and gravel quarries at Nassington. When these stopped, the line closed but the track remained in situ. The line became the Nene Valley Railway heritage railway and was reopened on 1 June 1977.

Station features

Old Wansford station building

The original Wansford station, designed by John William Livock, is located on platform three and was built in 1844–1845 in Jacobean style for the opening of the railway. This building was finally purchased by the Nene Valley Railway in 2015. In October 2011 it appeared on the list of the ten most threatened Victorian and Edwardian buildings, published by the Victorian Society.^[1]

Signal Box at Wansford Station with level crossing in foreground

Model railway

On platform 4 there is a model railway which has been put together by enthusiasts over five years, housed in a converted rail coach. This coach is a BR Mk2e FO ex 'London's Burning' coach, number W3227. The main layout, called Hammerton Junction, is mainly 00 gauge; one end is raised up and has N gauge on it. There is a small layout called Iron Sidings built on top of an ironing board.

Preceding station	Heritage railways			Following station
Yarwell Junction		Nene Valley Railway		Ferry Meadows

Summary of Services

Lines around Wansford in 1903

Use in film and television

The old station building appeared in the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy, in which Bond (played by Roger Moore) drove a Mercedes-Benz car along the railway tracks after its tyres were punctured in pursuit of a train on which the villainous Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan) was transporting a bomb. This scene was scripted as being in East Germany.^[3]

A station identified by a sign as Wansford appears in the music video for the 1991 single 'The Air that You Breathe' by UK band, Bomb the Bass.^[4]

References

External links

Media related to Wansford railway station at Wikimedia Commons