Syston and Peterborough Railway

The project was part of the ambition of George Hudson to establish and maintain a monopoly of railway service over a large area of England.

[note 1][5] Having failed to kill off the Great Northern Railway promoters' scheme, Hudson now took steps to enhance his access to East Anglia.

[8][6] The Act authorised construction of a branch line to Peterborough from a triangular junction at Syston; the line would run through Melton Mowbray, Oakham, Luffenham and Stamford, forming a junction at Peterborough, not with the north-south Great Northern Railway, but the intended west to east Eastern Counties Railway.

In an encounter that marked the first phase of what came to be called the Battle of Saxby, seven of Hudson's surveyors arrived in the Stapleford area in November 1844 to survey the route of the line.

As they approached the Park, the Midland surveyors were confronted by several of Lord Harborough's men, armed with pitchforks and sticks, and ordered away, even though they were still on public land.

Since the Midland men had committed no crime, there was no legal action that could be taken against them; a policeman pointed this out to Harborough's man, and he had to be content with tipping them out of the cart into the road.

Several prison sentences and fines were awarded to the fighting men on both sides, and surveying activities were suspended for the time being.

[11] Even after the MR had gained Parliamentary approval for its route in June 1845, Lord Harborough stubbornly refused to allow any construction work to be started anywhere near his estate.

Faced with this unreasonable opposition, the Midland Railway decided to re-route the line a little further away from Stapleford Park, but when the surveyors arrived, with a bodyguard, to take new measurements and levels they were once again confronted by a group of Lord Harborough's men, and the second Battle of Saxby was soon in full swing.

The surveying did eventually get done, and the deviation was authorised by Act of 16 June 1846, with the provision for a tunnel to be driven underneath a spinney of fine trees known as Cuckoo Plantation, on Lord Harborough's estate so that the offending trains would be hidden from his Lordship’s view.

By this time, the two sections of line on either side of the Saxby area had already been built and were in operation, that from Syston to Melton from 1 September 1846, and from Peterborough to Stamford from 2 October 1846.

Traffic on the canal was clearly declining, and in the very dry summer of 1844 the waterway had been unnavigable for five months and goods had to be transported by road.

In fact the ECR itself did not reach there (from Ely and March) until 1847, so that for a time from 2 June 1845, it was only served by London and Birmingham Railway trains from Northampton.

Accordingly on 17 October 1848 it opened from Lincoln to Peterborough, but at Werrington Junction a temporary connection was made to the Midland Railway line, and for a time GNR trains ran over the Midland line, and used the Eastern Counties Railway station as a temporary Peterborough terminus.

This caused complaint from passengers intending to travel to London by changing to a GNR train, and between 1 February 1858 and 1 August 1866, the Midland Railway provided a station called Crescent.

PW&SBR services continued to the GER station, enlarged by an island but still having only two main platform lines, until 30 September 1904.

[19] The Eastern and Midland Railway had been formed by takeover of several smaller Companies controlling the lines between Bourne and Lynn.

This involved a commitment from the E&MR to favour the Midland over the GNR, and when Parliamentary authorisation was sought, this favouritism caused the Bill to be rejected.

[24] In the first years of the twentieth century it was decided to install goods loops between Melton Mowbray and Brentingby Junction.

The line was straight and level at Brentingby so it was an ideal place to install water troughs, which was done on all four tracks, coming into use on 3 May 1905.

Holwell ironworks was established to extract the mineral, at first brought to Ashwell station by horse and cart.

The line closed on 13 March 1972; the quarry was unable to compete with cheap imported ore. A signal box was erected at Ashwell Junction in 1919, but it was never commissioned, the points being worked from a ground frame.

[26] During World War II a Royal Ordnance Factory filling station, ROF No 10, was established at Queniborough.

After the opening of the Nottingham line, it is not obvious (from Bradshaw) that the route was excessively congested, and that may point to a heavy mineral and goods service.

In 2022, typical weekday services run hourly from Stansted Airport or Cambridge to Birmingham and back.

Syston north curve has two regular workings, the 04:56 and 06:07 Nottingham to Norwich trains run by that route Mondays to Fridays, a few minutes later on Saturdays.