Rugby Junction

From its humble beginnings as a stop on the pioneering London & Birmingham Railway of 1838, Rugby’s station soon grew into a major junction, with seven lines radiating from it. This not only included what became the West Coast Main Line from London Euston to the North West via the Trent Valley line, but also lines to Leamington Spa, Birmingham, Leicester, Stamford and Northampton. These fascinating archive photographs provide a portrait of this complex of junctions in the age of steam, culminating in views of the Great Central Railway’s more modest station at Rugby Central, the latecomer that completed the town’s railway map in 1899.