Where
The Cambridgeshire village of Stibbington, near Peterborough. The railway museum is at Wansford station, built in 1845. The East Anglia to West Coast line on which it sits was closed by the Beeching Act. The last mainline service was in 1966.
What
The Nene Valley Railway (NVR) is a heritage steam railway, says its curator and magazine editor Brian White. "We have a unique collection of continental and British rolling stock and locomotives, a working railway line that runs from Peterborough in the east to Yarwell Junction at the extreme west of the line, a distance of seven and a half miles.
We have a new purpose-built station building in the style of the London and North Western Railway, which houses a shop, cafe, general office and, booking hall."
The NVR also has a commendable record as a shooting location: it has appeared in numerous film and television productions, for, amongst others, Octopussy, Dad's Army, Silent Witness, Casualty and Middlemarch.
Opened
1977.
Collection
Twelve steam locomotives, 14 diesel locomotives, rakes - that's the collective noun for carriages - of British, Belgian and Danish origin and all the equipment used for travelling post offices, from bag-exchange mechanisms and leather pouches to mail sacks.
There is also a Kriegslok, a 1943 German war locomotive that was captured by Soviet troops in Poland and taken to Russia for service there. In 1969 it was returned to Poland and, after its disposal 20 years later, brought to Peterborough by a 747 pilot and train buff, Martin Haines.
Help at hand
Two engine fitters and two carriage fitters are among the railway's 12 paid members of staff. Then there are the 220 volunteers from all walks of life - doctors, pilots, postmen among them.
Budget Other than passenger fares (£10.50 for an adult day ticket) and platform tickets (£2, £1), no external funding. The NVR has received Heritage Lottery Fund money for projects, including grants to buy an Italian wagon-lit dining car; £90,000 to restore Thomas; and one for a project planning officer who is working on the NVR's bid to buy the 1845 station that currently belongs to a haulage company.
Annual visits
63,000 in 2007.
Highlights
The City of Peterborough, a standard British Rail, Class 5 locomotive. It was bought for preservation by the Reverend Richard Paten in the late 1960s. "It was the train that started the whole thing," White says.
"In 1971, the next most important engine arrived - a little blue tank engine that was built in 1947 for the British Sugar Corporation. It was named Thomas by none other than the Rev WV Awdry. As far as we're concerned, it's the original Thomas."
Survival tip
"To keep the interest of the children," says White. "It's the children that bring the parents. The children are the most important part of any museum." This month, the NVR's Santa Specials will be carrying more than 4,600 pre-booked passengers, and Thomas will be in full steam.
Sticky moment
"The odd derailment and the normal sorts of problems you'd expect with old boilers," says White. "And recently, we had to figure out how to put down a piece called a double-slip crossover point. Our civil engineer had forgotten how to do it. The army came to help and in return we taught them how to run diesel engines."
Current project
To buy the station building; and to erect an international mail museum at the Ferry Meadows station in the Nene Country Park in Peterborough.
The Cambridgeshire village of Stibbington, near Peterborough. The railway museum is at Wansford station, built in 1845. The East Anglia to West Coast line on which it sits was closed by the Beeching Act. The last mainline service was in 1966.
What
The Nene Valley Railway (NVR) is a heritage steam railway, says its curator and magazine editor Brian White. "We have a unique collection of continental and British rolling stock and locomotives, a working railway line that runs from Peterborough in the east to Yarwell Junction at the extreme west of the line, a distance of seven and a half miles.
We have a new purpose-built station building in the style of the London and North Western Railway, which houses a shop, cafe, general office and, booking hall."
The NVR also has a commendable record as a shooting location: it has appeared in numerous film and television productions, for, amongst others, Octopussy, Dad's Army, Silent Witness, Casualty and Middlemarch.
Opened
1977.
Collection
Twelve steam locomotives, 14 diesel locomotives, rakes - that's the collective noun for carriages - of British, Belgian and Danish origin and all the equipment used for travelling post offices, from bag-exchange mechanisms and leather pouches to mail sacks.
There is also a Kriegslok, a 1943 German war locomotive that was captured by Soviet troops in Poland and taken to Russia for service there. In 1969 it was returned to Poland and, after its disposal 20 years later, brought to Peterborough by a 747 pilot and train buff, Martin Haines.
Help at hand
Two engine fitters and two carriage fitters are among the railway's 12 paid members of staff. Then there are the 220 volunteers from all walks of life - doctors, pilots, postmen among them.
Budget Other than passenger fares (£10.50 for an adult day ticket) and platform tickets (£2, £1), no external funding. The NVR has received Heritage Lottery Fund money for projects, including grants to buy an Italian wagon-lit dining car; £90,000 to restore Thomas; and one for a project planning officer who is working on the NVR's bid to buy the 1845 station that currently belongs to a haulage company.
Annual visits
63,000 in 2007.
Highlights
The City of Peterborough, a standard British Rail, Class 5 locomotive. It was bought for preservation by the Reverend Richard Paten in the late 1960s. "It was the train that started the whole thing," White says.
"In 1971, the next most important engine arrived - a little blue tank engine that was built in 1947 for the British Sugar Corporation. It was named Thomas by none other than the Rev WV Awdry. As far as we're concerned, it's the original Thomas."
Survival tip
"To keep the interest of the children," says White. "It's the children that bring the parents. The children are the most important part of any museum." This month, the NVR's Santa Specials will be carrying more than 4,600 pre-booked passengers, and Thomas will be in full steam.
Sticky moment
"The odd derailment and the normal sorts of problems you'd expect with old boilers," says White. "And recently, we had to figure out how to put down a piece called a double-slip crossover point. Our civil engineer had forgotten how to do it. The army came to help and in return we taught them how to run diesel engines."
Current project
To buy the station building; and to erect an international mail museum at the Ferry Meadows station in the Nene Country Park in Peterborough.