Rails Around Rugby: Pre-Grouping to BR Blue

Railways Around Rugby: Pre-Grouping to Rail Blue tells the story of the changes to be seen on the railway network in the Rugby area from before the Grouping of the Railways in 1923 to the BR Rail Blue era of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. At the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, The London & North Western Railway, The Great Central Railway and the Midland Railway all operated in and around Rugby. Rugby was served by two stations, Rugby and Rugby Central, the latter now closed since 1969, and was an important railway junction on what became the West Coast Main Line, with routes to Birmingham and the North West and Scotland in one direction and to London, Euston and Northampton in the other direction. The Great Central route from Sheffield and the East Midlands ran to London at Marylebone. By the 1960s, the West Coast Main Line was electrified around Rugby and that same decade the Great Central closed, as well as the lines to Leamington, Leicester and Peterborough and the engine sheds at Rugby.