It seems to the writer that in order to achieve due (or even disproportionate) coverage in railway literature a line needs to be short, jointly-owned, narrow gauge, run through spectacular scenery or have unusual engineering features, locomotives or rolling stock. Little has been written about certain secondary routes which meet none of these criteria, one such is the former London & North Western Railway (LNWR) line from Rugby through Market Harborough to Peterborough. This article attempts to redress the balance, with particular reference to the decline from an established position in the 1950s to eventual closure in 1966. It also describes the background to a typical Beeching-era closure and the eventual last rites.
Cross country routes to Peterborough
Three routes from the west into Peterborough were opened in quick succession:
The London & Birmingham (to become LNWR in 1846) branch from Blisworth via Northampton opened in 1845.
The Midland Railway line from Syston, north of Leicester, via Stamford opened in 1846-48.
The line from Rugby, initially to a junction with the Midland at Luffenham, opened in 1850-51.
The history of the LNWR route is inevitably intertwined with that of the other two, during both their heyday and the rationalisation which has left the Midland line as the sole survivor.
Outline history
The Rugby & Stamford Railway was one of several branches planned by the London & Birmingham Railway. Engineered by Charles Liddell, it was authorised by Parliament in June 1846 shortly before the L&BR became part of the new LNWR on 16th July. The authorised capital was £600,000 plus loans of £200,000 and the contractor Joseph Firbank. Following the Avon and Welland valleys, the line was relatively easy to build It opened to Market Harborough on 1st May 1850, Rockingham on 1st June 1850 and on to Luffenham on 2nd June 1851, trains running through to the Midland station in Stamford.
Originally single track except from Market Harborough to Rockingham, the line was doubled in 1878, and on 1st November 1879 a link was opened from Seaton to Yarwell Junction near Wansford on the Northampton—Peterborough line, giving the LNWR a route from Rugby to Peterborough entirely under its own control. Seaton to Luffenham was relegated to branch status and singled again in 1907. Following pressure from the town and its public school, a short branch to Uppingham from Seaton opened on 1st October 1894.
Connecting with the Rugby-Peterborough route, the LNWR Northampton to Market Harborough line opened in 1859, and the Great Northern & LNW Joint Line from Welham Junction to Bottesford, south of Newark, and Saxondale Junction, east of Nottingham, in 1879. At the same time, the GNR built a curve from Hallaton Junction on the Joint Line to Drayton Junction, followed in 1883 by a connection from Longville Junction to Fletton Junction on the GNR main line south of Peterborough. This enabled the commencement that year of a service from Leicester Belgrave Road to Peterborough (GN), but this was withdrawn in 1916. The Stamford & Essendine Railway, whose majority shareholder was the Marquis of Exeter, opened a branch in 1867 from its Stamford station (later Stamford East under British Railways) to Wansford. From 1872 it was worked by the GNR, this company leasing the S&ER in 1894, but services ceased from 1st July 1929.
Meanwhile, the Midland Railway line from Wigston to Hitchin had opened on 8th May 1857, Midland
