LNER Route: Leicester to Marylebone

Rugby Central Station: gcrcs200

A 1960s view of Rugby Central station's booking hall and offices located on Hillmorton Road. The car is a Hillman Imp, a rear engine car built by the Rootes Group of Coventry to compete against the British Motor Corporation's Morris Mini Minor and its Austin Seven equivalent. Andrew Chilcott writes 'the final character on the number plate is a letter 'D'. We can therefore say that the Hillman Imp here was registered in calendar year 1966. Furthermore, there are two Notice of Closure/Amendment posters prominent on the station wall at right of the telephone kiosk. It seems reasonable to assume that these detail the confirmation of closure south of Rugby and the coming into use of the truncated Nottingham service effective September 1966. The waiting lady is well muffled up and the tree at left is yet to come into leaf. The date of the photograph can be no earlier than January 1966, but it might be later than that date by as much as a year as posters in sheltered positions have a surprisingly long life. All that considered, I say the view was taken in the cold months of 1966 or maybe 1967'.

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