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The Development of Transport in Rugby by Peter H ElliottThe following are the titles of the nineteen chapters in Peter's manuscript. To read the manuscript, which is fully searchable, click on the PDF imediately below the chapter headings.
Use the links below to access the images and text on this page:The first railway station to be built in Rugby was a wooden temporary structure located around half a mile to the west of the present station. It opened in 1838 when the London and Birmingham Railway was constructed. This station lasted only a few years. When a junction was made with the Midland Counties Railway in 1840 a new station was built nearer the present station site although still slightly to the west. This second station was effectively managed by two companies - the London and North Western Railway and the Midland Railway - and for this reason grew up in a haphazard fashion. It was at first no more than a temporary wooden structure, but was rebuilt in brick in 1850. This station consisted of platforms at each side of the track with one bay platform. The platforms were rather low and passengers complained of having to perform an "acrobatic feat" to board trains. The station was at the centre of a busy junction and often saw chaotic scenes. It featured, only lightly disguised, in Charles Dickens's story Mugby Junction. The second station lasted until the 1880s, when a new line from Rugby to Northampton was built, and it was replaced by the current structure which opened in 1885. This station exists until the 21st century, albeit modified, consisting of one large island platform with tracks on both sides and bay platforms at each end. The platform was accessed from a tunnel at road level and a ramp leading to the platforms. The station was noted for an unusual feature, the 'scissor junction' which allowed two trains to be in one platform at the same time. The scissor junction was an X shaped junction which allowed one train to pass another one already in the platform, and call into the same platform ahead of it, and allowed the train to the rear to pull out of the station. For this reason the station has one of the longest platforms of any British railway station. The scissor junctions remained in use until the railway was electrified in the 1960s. At its height, as well as the West Coast Main Line, Rugby station served railway lines to Leicester, Leamington Spa, and Peterborough via Market Harborough. In the 1960s all but the West Coast line were closed as part of the Beeching Axe. As a part of the West Coast Main Line modernisation programme, major track restructuring work was carried out to allow higher speed running through Rugby; three new platforms were added, along with a new ticket office and entrance. Work began in September 2006 and was completed late in 2008. The following contemporary writings have been provided by Ian Petticrew and Wendy Austin, as extracts from their excellent on-line discourse 'The Train Now Departing' which comprises notes and extracts on the history of the London to Birmingham Railway.Commenting on the construction of the London to Birmingham Railway, 'I REJOICE TO SEE IT AND THINK THAT FEUDALITY HAS GOVE FOREVER”. Dr. Thomas Arnold . . . . so said the distinguished historian and headmaster of Rugby School on first seeing a London and Birmingham Railway train pass through the town. Another commentator, Lieut. Peter Lecount R.N., a member of Stephenson’s project team, had this to say: 'The London and Birmingham Railway is unquestionably the greatest public work ever executed, either in ancient or modern times. If we estimate its importance by the labour alone which has been expended on it, perhaps the Great Chinese Wall might compete with it; but when we consider the immense outlay of capital which it has required — the great and varied talents which have been in a constant state of requisition during the whole of its progress — together with the unprecedented engineering difficulties, which we are happy to say are now overcome — the gigantic work of the Chinese sinks totally into the shade.'Until the London and Birmingham Railway arrived in 1838 and the Midland Counties Railway two years later, Rugby had been a small rural town with a population of around 2,500. Railways were to prove a major factor in its development. The proliferation of railway yards and workshops attracted workers to the town, and by the 1880’s its population exceeded 10,000. In the following decades heavy engineering industries were set up, and Rugby became a major industrial centre. By the 1940s its population had reached 40,000 growing to in excess of 60,000 by 2013. The earliest station was located on an embankment, about half a mile to the west of the present station at the point where the former Leamington branch left the main line. Today’s traveller approaching the site could be forgiven for failing to recognise any aspect of the landscape depicted in Roscoe’s Guide: 'In the space of a minute the train passes over the road from Rugby to Lutterworth, and arrives at the Rugby Station, distant from London eighty-three, and from Birmingham twenty-nine miles. The landscape on all sides is remarkable for the diversified site of the ground, the rich succession of red fallows and green meadows, with the uplands clothed with majestic woods of the most luxuriant foliage. The embankment on which this station is situated is one mile long, and varies from thirty to forty feet in height ? it contains 105,000 cubic yards of earth.' The London and Birmingham Railway, Roscoe and Lecount (1839). Opened in April 1838, the first Rugby Station was intended to be temporary, probably because the exact location of the junction with the planned Midland Counties Railway had yet to be decided. Despite its status, the Station’s architect was sufficiently proud of his creation to exhibit a drawing of it which can’t now be traced at the Royal Academy Exhibition held in London in 1838. The catalogue entry reads: '1064. View of the temporary Rugby Station now building for the London and Birmingham Railway Company. G. Aitchison.' Roscoe and Lecount provide a brief description: 'Close to the bridge, on the east side of the Railway, is a lofty chimney belonging to the pumping engine, which supplies the tank with water for the locomotive engines; and on the opposite side is the station house and booking offices. This building is erected in the Swiss style, with a large projecting roof, and is arranged so as to afford accommodation to passengers both arriving and departing. The booking offices are on the ground floor, and a staircase leads to the waiting rooms above on the level of the Railway, to gain which a large covered enclosure is passed under, while parties wishing to leave the Railway descend from the line by a separate staircase, so that all confusion is avoided.' The London and Birmingham Railway, Roscoe and Lecount (1839). Owing to the difficulty of gaining lodgings for the servants of the Company, a number of small wooden cottages were erected on the left of the station, at the far side of the area, where the omnibuses and coaches used to collect to take the passengers on from here to Denbigh Hall, prior to the completion of the intervening portion of the line. Osborne's London & Birmingham Railway Guide, EC and W Osborne (1840). Francis Wishaw gives a detailed description of what he describes as Ruby's second station but in fact (according to Stephen Weston of the LNWR Society and author of various articles) is a description of Rugby's first station. Wishaw wrote: 'The station at Rugby is situate on the west side of the railway, which at this place is on embankment. The station-house is set back from the railway about 30 feet, with a fore-court intervening about 34 feet in width. The building is 26 feet in front, and 31 feet 6 inches in depth. On the upper floor, which is on a level with the fore-court, is a waiting-room, the descent from which to the booking-office below by a flight of twenty steps. The police-inspectors’ house is contiguous to offices; and the conveniences are placed in the cellars underneath the fore-court. The passengers leaving by a train pass through the booking-office up the stairs into the waiting-room, and from thence across the fore-court to the platform; while those arriving leave the station by a flight nineteen wooden steps, 6 feet in width, and on the right side of the fore-court. The station platform is of wood, 8 feet 10 inches wide; and between the ways is a second platform of wood, 2 feet 9 inches wide, and 7 inches high above the rails. The whole width of way from the platform to the top of the slope on the opposite side is 26 feet 5 inches. The stationary engine-house is on the opposite side of the way; and besides the engine and boiler-rooms, there are under the same roof the porter’s lodge, oil-room, &c.; The pumping-engine has a 6-inch cylinder and 2-feet stroke; the usual working pressure is about 34 lbs. The water is derived from the river Avon, and let into a large tank built for the purpose. At a distance from the station of about a quarter of a mile is a locomotive engine house, which will hold three engines and tenders shed at this station. There is also a carriage-shed at this station. The persons employed at this station are, one ticket-collector, one inspector, four police, five porters, one stationary engine-man, three engine -drivers, two firemen, two smiths, one stoker, three fitters, two cleaners, two coke-men, and two carpenters.' The Railways of Great Britain and Ireland, Francis Wishaw (1842). Rugby’s second station, also to the west of the present station, but nearer, was built at the junction with the Midland Counties Railway. The new Station, which was jointly managed, gained a reputation for its haphazard development: 'The general state of the railway does not call for any more minute observation. Such of the stations and other works as were not in a perfect finished state at the time of the last annual meeting, have since been completed, and the directors believe, that, in all the arrangements, and in the working of the line, the expectations and requirements of the public have been most satisfactorily answered. The only exception of which the directors are aware, is the Rugby station, where, notwithstanding the large sums that have been expended in providing amply for the convenience of the public, and in adopting the precise mode of communication pointed out by the London and Birmingham Company, at this important place of junction, complaints are still made of the insufficiency of the arrangements. This has been a source of great disappointment to the directors, after the unlooked for expense which has already been incurred, but alterations are in progress by which they hope to remedy every reasonable ground of dissatisfaction.' The Derby Mercury, 18th August 1841. The opening of the Grand Junction Railway in 1837 created a rail link between Birmingham and the North West, which was soon extended to Rugby, while the opening of the Midland Counties Railway to Rugby in 1840 created a rail route to the North East. The outcome was that Rugby became an extremely busy transport node through which passed most of the rail traffic between London and the Midlands, the north of England, Scotland and North Wales. The Station and its Junction were to retain this position for the next 25 years, during which time the town also grew in size and importance: 'The rise and progress of Rugby station is thus given by the Morning Chronicle: When the London and Birmingham Railway was opened, the little village of Rugby was known only as the locale of a celebrated Grammar School. Now it bids fair to become a large, bustling market town, and the great centre of the principal Railway traffic in the heart of England. The station on the line when first opened, and for a good many years after, was not 40 yards in length. Now it is about 150; and looking from one end to the other it appears as if it had been laid down for some splendid promenade. Since the traffic on the Midland Railway was diverted towards it, and the Midland Company got a joint interest in the station, notwithstanding its vast accommodation, it is now found to be greatly too small. To remedy this and to provide for the traffic on the Trent Valley line, now in progress at the Rugby terminus, as well as for the traffic to the Rugby, Warwick, and Leamington Railway, which is also to use this station as a central depot for goods, and for the conveyance of passengers from the East to the West of England and to Wales, plans have been drawn of such additions and alterations as will serve to make the station at once the most extensive and magnificent in the kingdom. The Midland Counties and the Trent Valley Companies will mostly confine themselves to the North side, while the London and Birmingham and the Rugby, Warwick and Leamington Companies will chiefly occupy the South. At present, the London and Birmingham have got a spacious fitting and engine establishment on the Rugby side, attached to which, for the accommodation of the fitters and their families, two rows of handsome and commodious cottages have been erected, and with their neat and tidy plots of garden ground, constitute quite a picture along the line. In a straight line from these cottages, a new road has been laid out, and nearly all built upon by handsome houses, constituting what is styled ‘railway Terrace,’ the upper end of which joins the village, which now boasts double the population it contained only ten years ago.' The Coventry Herald, 12th June 1846. Charles Newmarch, returning to Rugby after some years absence, remarked on the change to the station architecture that had occurred, describing the original station as being of timber construction: 'But when we at length stopped at the station, a great change was indeed perceptible. We remembered nothing of the long range of building, with its engine houses and immense establishment; when we left Rugby, a little wooden station of very moderate dimensions was found sufficient for all the traffic that then existed, whereas now we have a platform of some hundred feet in length, and even more accommodation is still required.' Recollections of Rugby, C. H. Newmarch (1848). Other lines to Stamford (1850) and to Leamington (1851) added to the traffic, to the extent that Rugby Station eventually became so congested that on occasions trains had to wait hours to pass through, leading to much frustration and anger among travellers (and to Charles Dickens’ satirical tales of Mugby Junction): 'At about this time the attention of the shareholders was first seriously directed to some new railway schemes that were in contemplation; one of which came eventually to exercise an important influence on the destinies of the Midland Company. This was a proposal for a new line to connect the Midland system with the metropolis. Many complaints had been made that the only access for Midland passengers to London was by the circuitous and uncertain route of Rugby — uncertain because the arrangements for the meeting of trains so frequently broke down. One gentleman, for instance, declared at a public meeting at Leicester, that he had three times in succession been detained three hours at Rugby; and it was declared that many persons ‘hated the name of Rugby.' The Midland Railway: its rise and progress, FS Williams (1876). The position was alleviated to some extent when, in 1857, the Midland Railway negotiated an agreement with the Great Northern to run trains into Kings Cross via Hitchin, and in 1859 when the London and North Western opened a third track between Willesden and Bletchley. Nevertheless, congestion remained serious due, in great part, to the heavy London-bound Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire coalfield traffic, which disgorged from the former Midland Counties line: 'The embarrassment of the Midland Company, too, may be imagined when they received such messages as, ‘Stop all coals from Butterley colliery for Acton, Hammersmith, and Kew, for three days, as Willesden sidings are blocked up.’ ‘The North London are blocked with Poplar coals for all the dealers; Camden cannot receive any more for Poplar.’ ‘You must stop the whole till London is clear.’ ‘Rugby is blocked so as not to be able to shunt any more.’ ‘Camden and the North London are blocked with coals.' The Midland Railway: its rise and progress, FS Williams (1876). 'On one occasion the North Western was so blocked with traffic that it was forced to give notice to the Midland that it could not for some time take on any coal traffic from Rugby, and that in consequence ‘five miles’ of coal trains accumulated at Rugby waiting for conveyance to London . . . . It was under these circumstances that the Midland directors promoted a line to London . . . . ' History of the London and North Western Railway, WL Steel (1914). The Midland Railway’s own line into London was completed in 1868 with the opening of the Saint Pancras passenger terminus, to be followed five years later by the prestigious Midland Grand Hotel. Despite losing most of its traffic from the former Midland Counties Railway, Rugby continued to remain inadequate for the freight traffic it carried. In other respects, the station was poorly constructed and a constant source of irritation to travellers, its particularly low platforms which enabled tyre examination being a perennial source of complaint. Eventually, in 1882 . . . .'. . . . the London and North-Western Railway voted a sum of £70,000 for the erection of a new station. The traffic had become so heavy that in the present incommodious station it is worked with much difficulty and many delays . . . . More than 120 passenger trains, only one of which does not stop, pass through the station daily, and as there is no separate line for goods and mineral trains, the stress of a proportionate number of these is added . . . . a goods or mineral train is despatched every nine minutes during the night time. Then there is the fact that coal trains for the South are made up at Rugby of trucks coming from the Lancashire, South Yorkshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Cannock Chase, and other coalfields. About two years ago an adequate goods station and large cattle sidings were built; but the usefulness of these must to a very appreciable extent be counteracted, so long as the present arrangement of metals is used. What shortcomings of the station are that present themselves to the notice of passengers is tolerably well known.' Birmingham Daily Post, 1st March 1884. The new station was opened in July 1885. [18] It consisted of an exceptionally large island platform (437 yards long by 37 yards wide), on each side of which were two pairs of tracks to accommodate passenger and goods traffic, with bay platforms at each end. Mid-way along each side of the island were ‘scissor junctions’, which allowed two trains to use one platform at the same time.Considerable re-engineering was also carried out to the south of the Station to construct flyovers to keep the main line clear of traffic from Northampton and Peterborough. Following completion of the Midland main line into London, the former Midland Counties Railway to Rugby lost its importance by 1884, the service had diminished to five trains daily in each direction but a service continued until the line was closed in December 1961. Elsewhere, the 1960s marked the start of Rugby’s decline as a railway town, in part due to Dr. Beeching and his axe. Its locomotive sheds were closed in 1960 and in 1965, as did the Locomotive Testing Station and the Great Central goods yard. Of the railways that once converged on Rugby from nine directions, the line to Leamington closed in 1965, followed in 1966 by the line to Peterborough and the Great Central Railway south of Rugby. The section of the Great Central Railway to Nottingham survived until 1969. Extracts from Rugby Midland Telegraph Office Log BookCompiled by Norman Cousins, (1922 - 2013) who occuped various posts throughout his railway working life.
Charles Dickens - 'Mugby Junction' "Guard! What place is this?" "Mugby Junction, sir." "A windy place!" "Yes, it mostly is, sir." "And looks comfortless indeed!" "Yes, it generally does, sir." "Is it a rainy night still?" "Pours, sir." In April 1866 Charles Dickens was travelling from London to Liverpool and as his train reached Rugby his carriage was found to be on fire. While a new one was attached Dickens went into the refreshment room for a cup of coffee where he was treated rudely by the female in charge and being a writer Dickens had his own revenge. He wrote a book called 'Mugby Junction' and in chapter three made a scathing attack on railway refreshment rooms and their staff. Ordnance Survey Maps, Diagrams and DrawingsDiagrams and Drawings1886 Ordnance Survey Maps1903 Ordnance Survey Maps1912 Ordnance Survey Maps1939 Ordnance Survey MapsOrdnance Survey Maps of Hillmorton SidingsLNWR 1898 TimetablesMidland Railway 1853 Working Time TablesAccident Reports supplied courtesy of Railways Archive
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