A DAY AT THE RACES

Special Trains Notices are a fascinating source of information for the railway historian, providing access to, amongst other things, details of additional trains and alterations to normal services which would otherwise have gone unnoticed. One recently acquired example is a London Midland & Scottish Railway ERO 19102 for the period from Friday 27th May to Friday 2nd June 1939 – the Whit Monday Bank Holiday weekend – and this includes the arrangements made by the Western Division of the LMS for the traditional Whit Monday horse-racing meeting at Towcester in Northamptonshire.

Towcester station had been opened in 1866 by the Northampton & Banbury Junction Railway company, but for the first six years passengers could only travel the short distance to Blisworth, on the London & North Western Railway main line, where connections were available to London, the north and, by use of the Nene Valley branch, to the nearest large town of Northampton. Over the next 25 years Towcester evolved into a four-way junction, with the N&BJR line being continued on to Cockley Brake Junction to allow services to reach Banbury in 1872, and two further lines being constructed by the East & West Junction Railway, firstly west to Stratford-upon-Avon in 1873 and finally in 1891 eastwards to join the Midland Railway Bedford to Northampton branch at Ravenstone Wood Junction. The E&WJR also enjoyed running powers over the Towcester to Blisworth stretch of the N&BJR and for several years both companies harboured intentions of extending to Northampton by means of a bridge across the West Coast Main Line at Blisworth. However, this was never constructed and access to the county town continued to be by way of an awkward reversal through exchange sidings at Blisworth, which severely hampered traffic movements. Eventually by 1910