This is the site of the Midland Road Thrapston Railway Station just on the north side of the A14 at Thrapston. To the left hand side there used to be an impressive station building, and to the right, behind the photographer there was a large goods shed.

In March 2012 to one side of the site there was still a large capstan embedded in concrete which was the remains of the goods yard crane.

On the eastern side of the site near to where the goods shed had been, the remains of the limestone transhipment facility could be found. A number of small sheds/offices were being reclaimed by nature here.

This is one of the supporting walls of the old limestone grading plant.

In between the trees, various items of equipment could still be found over 80 years after they were last used.

The remains of a stone crusher by The Patent Lightning Crusher Company Ltd. There was no obvious explanation why these items had not been recovered and scrapped many years ago.

A view from the other side of the photo above. The remains of the grading plant looking from the trackbed of the standard gauge railway sidings. The wagons would be shunted along here for loading from the limestone bins above.

One of the graders clearly shows the differing size holes along its length. As it turned round, the different size stones dropped out at different points along it's length.

Since 2012 when these photos were taken, the station area had been sold for housing, cleared and a new housing estate now stands on this site just north of the A14. All traces of the limestone grading and transhipment point have now gone. However, the narrow gauge line supplying the limestone to the standard gauge travelled roughly south east and much of this had not been disturbed when the A14 was built.

So deep in the wooded valley just south of the A14, lie the remains of the narrow gauge line untouched for over 80 years since it was last used.

skips and rail lie scattered about, in many cases with small trees growing through them.

According to Eric Tonks in his 'Ironstone Quarries of the Midlands' book, this narrow gauge limestone railway had been laid on the trackbed of an earlier ironstone standard gauge tramway, but there were no traces of this earlier use.

For about 1/2 mile, along the bottom of the wooded valley many skips have just been left, with frames, and skip buckets, lying all around.

In many places the rails had been covered with debris and vegetation.

In other places the track was still clear to see.

The line had been operated by a couple of petrol locos, and although these had been abandonned on site originally, they had eventually been cut up by the 1950s.

On one section of track, a skip chassis was still in position and even after all these years, rolled along the line.

In another few months most of these rusting relics would be covered over by summer weeds and undergrowth, so would be hard to find.

Sadly most of these wagons would be beyond any reasonable restoration. Certainly most of the skip buckets were in very poor condition but some of the frames and wheels had fared a little better.

The woodland where these are situated is private land now, and so permission would be required for access.