The Northampton & Lamport Railway (NLR) has had to suspend services across part of its line due to urgent repairs needed to a key bridge and is appealing for donations to help fund its repair.

The northern part of the line has been closed to public services, meaning that the running distance of the line has been reduced by a third. The reason is that passenger services across Bridge 13 have had to be suspended, because some of the track support timbers have unexpectedly deteriorating rapidly.

Bridge 13 is a six-span metal girder bridge on brick piers, which was restored to operational use by the line’s volunteers in 2000. However, some of the large timbers have started to deteriorate so much that they have reached the point where safety could become comprised if the bridge remained in use.

Although the bridge is a predominantly metal structure, the timbers run lengthways along the bridge beneath the rails to secure them to the main structure.

Although all ten of the bridge’s timbers are starting to approach the end of their useful life, two of them have been identified as considerably weakened. It was therefore decided that no passenger trains could pass over bridge after the Mince Pie Specials had completed their runs on New Year’s Day.

Closing the bridge will hugely affect the railway, as its train services will only be able to run over a fraction of the existing line. Due to the size of timbers required (40ft long, 10 inches deep, and 16 inches wide), they are expensive and can only be purchased from specialist suppliers. Transport is also expensive and an additional cost to factor in.

It is estimated that £8,500 is required to purchase and transport four timbers, two for immediate replacements and two for spares, so that they can be replaced to get the bridge re-opened before the railway’s main 2023 Season gets underway, and before timber prices increase. The railway has opened a dedicated fundraising page at https://gofund.me/1c14f264.

All donations will go to Northampton Steam Railway Ltd. which is the Northampton & Lamport Railway’s operating company, and will be ring-fenced for this project. Any funds raised in excess of the requirements for the timbers will be used for track infrastructure maintenance and repairs on the railway in the future.