Paying passengers all aboard as trains run on Northampton-Market Harborough line for first time in 50 years

Volunteers’ 16 years of hard work will be rewarded as paying passengers ride trains on a stretch of railway near Northampton for the first time in half a century.

Enthusiasts from the Northampton & Lamport Railway have restored around half-a-mile of track on the old Northampton-Market Harborough line which closed in 1973, allowing historic steam and diesel locos to operate to a new station at Boughton.

First passengers will climb aboard from 12 noon on Saturday (March 30) following an opening ceremony for invited guests only on the railway’s first operating day of the 2024 season. Tickets are available on the railway’s website www.nlr.org.uk.

A spokesman said: “Our volunteers have been working tirelessly over the last few years — and through the pandemic — to complete our 1/2 mile southern extension to Boughton.

“The project has involved restoring an 8-arch low viaduct and building a completely new station at Boughton. We’ve also restored an ex-LNWR signal box from near Crewe and installed a fully functioning Victorian signalling system.

“The Railway plays an important part in the local area’s heritage and tourism economies, attracting around 10,000 visitors a year, despite only operating on Sundays and some Saturdays and Bank Holidays. The opening of the extension is expected to see that figure grow.”

The line from Northampton to Market Harborough was designed and built by George R Stephenson and first opened in 1859 with eight stations at Pitsford & Brampton, Spratton, Brixworth, Lamport, Kelmarsh and Clipston.

It was first closed to regular services in 1960 but briefly reopened twice before the passenger trains were withdrawn for good ran in August 1973.

Enthusiasts banded together to run a special train along the line’s full length in 1981 — watched by thousands — and began work on restoring a mile-and-a-half section of track from Pitsford & Brampton station two years later, carrying passengers for the first time in 1995.

Northampton & Lamport Railway has plans of a quarter-mile extension north from its base at Pitsford & Brampton station to Merry Tom Crossing and eventually further north to Spratton.