2022 Q1 “A new hope”

Over the last year or so, the Wagon Group have been considering how we wanted to take things forward in the long term, and after some discussion the boards of NVR and RailWorld were approached about the possibility of relocating Wagon Group activities to RailWorld and making Peterborough NVR the freight base for the railway. A proposal was drawn up and agreed by all parties, and so 2022 started with the Wagon Group beginning activities at the other end of the line. There are many factors which led to this change, but it is believed to be a triple win for all involved:

The Wagon Group now have a permanent base with facilities close at hand
The sidings area of RailWorld has been tidied and made more appealing
NVR gains freight related attractions for passengers during the run rounds at the Peterborough end

This is, in a way, a home coming for the Wagon Group as this is where Wagon Group 1.0 activities were based, and we are in fact making their old grounded van body B??0049 our workshop/mess area

Initial activities involved refurbishment of the grounded van body, tidying/weeding/clearing the sidings area and assessing/preparing the wagons current stabled in RailWorld to enable them to be shunted.

Over the course of Q1 we went from this:

To this:

We had also been made aware that the vans used for filming in 2021 would no longer be required for any further film work, so over several sessions we were able to undertake the repairs necessary to return them to their normal condition and reverse the modifications made by the film company.

Towards the end of March we had a wagon shunt which took the hoppers from PNVR to Wansford to be turned on the turntable and then brought back to the bay platform at PNVR to have the other sides painted. On the return trip they were accompanied by the Banana Van which will be a static resident at the far end of the bay platform, and in time will become a freight museum with information about wagons, freight on the railway and Wagon Group activities.