from... THE LEICESTER TO RUGBY LINE Pt 2
This magnificent view of the approach to Rugby station from the north-west was taken just after Grouping, mainly to show the British Thomson-Houston Works and sidings but it shows much else besides. On the far left, the line from Leicester can be seen coming in over the brick arch, on a slightly higher level than the ex-L&NWR main line in the centre. The long footbridge on the right gave access to the factory for the BTH workforce.
At the left hand end of it can be seen Rugby Midland Signal Box. A replacement box was opened here on 29th March 1925 and, from the state of it, one would assume this is the old cabin, itself a replacement for an earlier box, opened in 1886. If this is correct, it dates the photograph to between 1923 and March 1925. The selection of wagons on view is also of great interest, many of them looking quite freshly painted. All four of the newly created ‘Big Four’ are represented but one pre-Group livery can still be found, below right, a 4- plank open lettered LNWR, next to the SR open with rounded ends.
As one would expect, there is a tremendous variety of private owners, with examples from Arley Colliery, Tarmac, Dunlops, Binley Colliery, Whitwell Coal Co, George Harwood, Bletchley & District Co-op, BTH, The Whitwick Granite Co, Roberts of Birmingham, Wirksworth Quarries, Wilson, Carter & Pearson, Cannock Chase, E. Linfield, Carlton, Lee & Jerdein and Sherriff & Sons. The sheds on the left, in front of the Leicester line, may well have housed a wagon works; there was a wagon repair works at Rugby but we have not been able to confirm its location. Can any reader help?
The train of laden, recently painted Bedwas Coke wagons looks impressive, although the two cattle wagons, complete with bovine occupants, at the rear slightly less so. The four grimy coke wagons in between cannot be identified. A Royal Daylight tank wagon can be seen on the left, with another tank in the process of being ‘fly shunted’ and consequently blurred by movement, whilst two Pickfords containers sit in LMS open wagons just in front of the coke train.
Finally, something looks a little odd with the shunting process; the coke wagons have been reversed into position on the hump, presumably in readiness for sorting but the rear of the train seems perilously close to the locomotive fly shunting the tank wagon.
~ Neil Parkhouse collection
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