Kettering, Thrapston and Huntingdon Railway

It connected the Midland Railway main line at Kettering to ironstone deposits to the south-east of the town, as well as opening up the agricultural district around Thrapston and reaching the regional centre of Huntingdon.

Although some munitions traffic during World War II enhanced the value of the line temporarily, it declined steeply after 1945 and passenger services were withdrawn in 1959.

An earlier scheme to connect them had failed, but in 1860 a definite proposal was formulated to reach them and to continue to Huntingdon on the Great Northern line.

There are extensive quarries of iron stone of a fine quality, and also beds of white clay, which will be worked in the vicinity, and for which there is a great and increasing demand.

A bill will be brought in in the next session of Parliament to extend the powers of the act to Huntingdon, so as to connect the Eastern Counties with the Midland line.

[1][2][7][4][8] The line had sharp curves and difficult gradients, and running through sparsely populated terrain, many of the stations were not well situated for the communities they were intended to serve.

[9]There were never more than four passenger trains daily running throughout on the line, although there were some short working to Thrapston, and on summer Saturdays in the 1950s a through Leicester to Clacton-on-Sea service operated.

A business study was carried out on the route between Kettering and Huntingdon in 1958; it showed considerable losses, and the result was that the passenger service was withdrawn after 15 June 1959.