GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Leamington South Junction: gwrls3950

Two internal letters from Mr J Morris (Superintendent of the Line at Paddington) to Mr SF Johnson (Divisional Superintendent at Birmingham Snow Hill) regarding the new Leamington South Junction to the L&NWR line.

The first letter dated 8th July 1908 confirms that the L&NWR had supplied the relevant tickets to the Leamington (GW) station, but that there was still an outstanding issue regarding passenger classification to be resolved. This may have been regarding 2nd class travel, as this this option was being phased-out by several railway companies at this time. The second letter dated 25th September 1908 indicates that the new passenger service from Cardiff to Yarmouth and Lowestoft, via Leamington and Peterborough was being withdrawn at the end of the summer season. This is confirmed by the Great Western Railway public timetable for October 1908 (until further notice), which indicates that passengers between these places had to transfer to the L&NWR at Oxford and travel to Cambridge where the journey continued on the Great Eastern Railway to Yarmouth and Lowestoft. The second paragraph in the letter makes reference to Mr AT Blackall, who was the Great Western Railway's Chief Signal & Telegraph Engineer from 27th July 1903 until he retired in June 1923.

Robert Ferris

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