Three heritage 1950s railway carriages vandalised

Staff at a heritage railway said they were "disappointed" after three vintage train carriages awaiting restoration had stones thrown at them and windows smashed in.

Vandals caused damage to the 1950s carriages during the summer at Nene Valley Railway's site at Wansford Station, near Peterborough.

Commercial manager Chris O'Regan described the carriages as museum pieces, saying what happened was particularly upsetting.

The railway has appealed for donations or industrial-grade tarpaulins to help protect the carriages while they await thousands of pounds of repairs.

The Nene Valley Railway runs for 7.5 miles (12km) from Peterborough through to Orton Mere, Overton, Wansford and Yarwell Junction.

The heritage line, which runs on part of the old Northampton to Peterborough railway, has featured in 150 commercials, TV programmes and films, including the James Bond movie Octopussy and Queen's music video for Breakthru.

Earlier this year, the charity that runs it launched a resilience fund, after warning it faced a challenging financial position.

The railway said restoring a carriage could take years and cost at least £20,000, adding that incidents like this led to "additional costs and efforts" - in this case, about £3,000 more.

O'Regan added: "These British Rail Mark One coaches would be from around the 1950s. It could be years before they are ready for restoration.

"But you never know somebody could come up with a project or somebody could say we need an extra carriage that can serve this purpose, and then suddenly one of them comes in [for restoration]."

O'Regan said visitor numbers during the summer holidays had been lower than hoped, with prolonged hot and dry weather forcing steam services to be restricted.

"During weather like that, the risk of a line-side fire from a locomotive becomes quite high, and actually what was unusual this year is we even had to apply the steam ban to Thomas for a period for the first time," he said.

He added that Cambridgeshire Police had been informed and urged visitors to report any suspicious activity.

Do you have a story suggestion for Peterborough? Contact us below.

Follow Peterborough news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.