The line was mainly intended for passengers travelling north, however through bookings were possible to Peterborough in direct competition with the Midland Railway.

Rather than make the necessary alterations, it was single tracked again except for the section between Stamford East and the Martin's Cultivators works.

[5] The Midland Railway was granted running powers over the Stamford and Essendine in 1866 and used it to send goods traffic to the Eastern & Midland Railway at Bourne and thence to East Anglia, but the junction arrangements at Essendine, where a reversal and flat crossing of the GNR main line were required, meant that as traffic increased, the route via Peterborough and the Great Eastern became preferred.

Ordnance Survey maps of 1946 show the line as in situ, but disused, from Stamford to half a mile north of Wansford Road station.

The former goods shed of circa 1856, east-south-east of the station, is a Grade II listed building.