I remember travelling from Rugby to Peterborough, via Seaton and, more recently, a very kind man who lives next door to Morcott tunnel, let us through his garden so that we could explore it! I shall always thank him for that.
As a Rugby resident and railway enthusiast fascinated by the remnants of old infrastructure (I know I am not alone); I found this video and the way it has been put together absolutely great. A very enjoyable watch. Many thanks for your work.😄
I hated on what Dr Beeching done to the railways in the UK. Why did he close most of the railway lines and stations in the 1960s. I just think it’s disgraceful.
I visited Seaton Station just 6 months after closure and everything was intact without a soul about. There were tickets all over the booking hall floor, enamel signs, signals, running in boards, totem signs all for the taking, however, no-one was interested in those days as railwayana collecting had not really taken off. I am fortunate however to now own the single line staff used on every journey between Seaton and Uppingham stations.
I am old enough to have travelled and well remember our railway system in the 1950's. What proceeded was a national crime of epic proportions in the deliberate destruction of one of the best railway systems in the world and now we will have to pay the price!
Just think though Leroy, without Richard Beeching's cuts in the 1960s steam would be long gone and heritage railways would barely exist. We have him to thank really for all the preserved railway systems up and down the country. Luckily Dia Woodham at Barry Island sold every single steam loco in his yard to heritage railway organisations, but without the disused railways closed by Beeching to run them on, steam would have long since gone.
Shame it closed, but it was classed as a "duplicate route" (presumably because it followed relatively closely the route from Birmingham through Nuneaton, Leicester to Peterborough), it would be a really useful route these days for container traffic to and from Felixstowe and take pressure off the now much busier route through Leicester. sadly however, it'll never happen through Market Harborough, as the authorities have allowed much building work along the trackbed through the town, including new roads, housing and even a Lidl supermarket to be built. Both Theddingworth and Yelvertoft and Stanford Park stations are in use as private dwellings and well preserved, Lilbourne Station platforms and Station House still exist, but next to nothing remains (that I know of) at Welford and Kilworth, Clifton Mill or Lubenham. In Market Harborough itself, a very faded advertising board still existed near to Stamford Close (itself built on the trackbed), just west of the little car park there on the back of a building on the south side, which can only have been seen by rail travellers, I assume its still there, it was until a few years ago at least.
A tiny piece of the line used to exist at Rugby to give access to a railway maintenance depot. However, I'm not sure if the depot is still open, but there used to be 25Kv overhead visible as one drove under the bridge at Butlers Leap. Maybe it's now all gone !
Thanks for your comment Fraser. Isn't that where I referred to the Peterborough branch siding? It's still there and was actually part of the LNWR route prior to closure, remaining now as a siding from the WCML and Rugby station. It acts as a spur to give access to the Colas/Carriluon Rail depot in Arches Lane/ Mill Road.
I as a very young man I can remember as a pass cleaner, I can tell you we would take the tank engine down to Seaton, we would couple up the engine to the 2 coach. Then we would get on the passenger train from Peterborough, then we would releave the crew at Market Harborough and take the passenger train to Rugby.
@@MattDavis_BeechingsGhosts That Colas Depot is the old Rugby DED (presumably constructed c.1964) and I think at least one road remains wired. The line heading north to Clifton Mill via Butlers Leap was electrified as was the 'return loop' via the viaduct/golf course - to allow electric locos and units to access the depot and avoid conflicting with the WCML. A short wired stub carries on up to the canal (Peterborough siding, as you said). Apparently de-electrification occurred in the 1970-71 period, possibly before.
@@MattDavis_BeechingsGhosts all the overhead lines went recently. My uncle bought the line from the canal to Clifton Mill station, he used the land as a builders yard, and to store caravans. He found a lot of glass bottles where the trackbed was, presumably thrown out of the railway carriages!
I made a scale model of Rockingham Station and wrote a history of the line. Elsie lived in the station house back then, breeding her King Charles Spaniels. She was a porter at Gretton back in the day. I got in touch with one of the Rockingham station masters and he came to the exhibition to see the layout. The goods shed was interesting too as the original office was still intact. Terrific video, it brought back so many memories, thank you Matt, it's really appreciated
@@MattDavis_BeechingsGhosts Thank you Matt very interesting, I've lived insight😢 of the LNW line at Rugby all my life. One thing I didn't quite understand was at 6:28 you describe the building of a new viaduct at Rugby. Would that have been the large viaduct which still marches across the Rugby golf course ? That carried, of course, the single line to Rugby, I'm not sure if that's termed up or down. Many thanks for creating this very informative film.
Brings back a lot of memories. Last time I travelled from Wroxham to Leicester we went via Peterborough to Market Harborough it was not long before the GN&LNW joint line closed I think. The only thing I recall about the trip was just before getting to Harborough we passed a goods train waiting on the joint line for us to pass and the loco was B17 4-6-0 61660 Hull City. It was minus its nameplates but in fairly clean green livery. It was withdrawn a few weeks later. At the time we lived in Leicester and our house backed onto the GNR Belgrave Road Branch, so it felt like sacrilege to be going to London Road Station! A memory I had almost forgotten revived some 60 years later thanks to the video. I can also recall cycling to Seaton to watch the push and pull service to Uppingham before it ended. My last memory of Seaton was seeing an 84xxx standard 2-6-2Tank loco in the platform.
I live in Rugby & have explored much of the several disused lines in the area.You did,nt mention the wonderful "golfcub" viaduct just before the Clifton Mill station site which .thank goodness,has been preserved although the trackbed beyond has been decimated by the new road to the Houlton development. The robbery scene in the 1967 movie "Robbery" was filmed at Theddingworth,the nearest approximation to Bredego Bridge!
Given the midlands arrival in Harborough after the LNWR even at the new station and it’s approaches the midlands lines take a dogs leg circuit around the lnwr alignments. The NEW Harborough station takes a straighter, higher speed alignment utilising land which had formed part of the LNWR alignments………it only took half a century after the LNWR lines’ closure for these improvements to be made.
These improvements only came about when electrification to Leicester was announced. With the new electric services terminating at Corby/Kettering, the only stop to be made on the London route was Harborough and Kettering so the service needed to be improved slightly. In 2003 there was a timetabled train from St Pancras to Leicester at 1715 arriving Leicester at 1815 and it NEVER ran on time, it was impossible to do that time with the Turbostar trains they laid on. So with all this data, the track alignment was improved and now it is possible to make the 99.5 mile (159.2km) journey in 60 minutes, pending cross country not arriving at the same time into Leicester. I don't think the use of the old LNWR track was ever a consideration by Network Rail. The electrification plan also includes some very interesting plans further north, if it ever goes ahead.
I am old enough to remember all these lines when they were open. As a keen train spotter on the ECML I was keen to explore further afield. Rugby was a favourite spot. At first I went by train the whole way from Stamford on the push and pull Seaton Doss then catching a Peterborough - Rugby train. Over the years, I cycled from Stamford to Seaton and later to Market Harborough. to catch the train to Rugby. As soon as I got a lightweight racing bike I cycled the whole way to Rugby and even once or twice to Leamington. I was fit and the hills were no problem although icy roads could be. Although Rugby attracted spotters from a very wide area - I often met some from Norwich - Seaton was a good spot with the Midland mainline passing over on Seaton Viaduct (the name we always called it) and with quarry ironstone trains in the area. I lived in Uffington and spent many a happy hour in the signal box where I had access to the special train timetables. The highlights were the Crab hauled horse and jockey trains from Aintree to Newmarket.
Thanks for putting together this excellent video. I lived in Weston-by-Welland throughout the 70s and most of the 80s and the remains of the L&NWR were a big part of my childhood. I can remember exploring Welham Junction in the early 70s when there were still tracks down and we used to go for walks along Green Ln where the Stamford branch crossed on the level and the route via Hallaton crossed on a bridge. I never remember there being a deck but was very young when we moved there. The abutments are still popular with climbers to this day
It's amazing how much is left, even if the paths of the track have gone. Thanks for sharing this memory, there's no better history than to have lived it.
The GJR was absorbed with other railways to form the LNWR (rather than LNWR taking over) in 1846, the same year the Rugby & Stamford Act was passed. I don't go too far into the pre-existing companies prior to the railway being built and look to cover the reasons for the railway rather than the structure of the business. The company that built the line is important, so LNWR were there to do that. As the Rugby & Stamford line was not influenced by the GJR, they therefore do not form part of this story.
@@MattDavis_BeechingsGhosts ...one of the nicest and most serene pieces to play. My favourite of the three gymnopedie Keep the fab films coming. All the best.
