Rugby Central railway station

Rugby Central was a railway station serving Rugby in Warwickshire on the former Great Central Main Line which opened in 1899 and closed in 1969.

It competed with the existing West Coast Main Line route for traffic to London which had served Rugby since the 1830s at Rugby Midland Station, which still exists, but since the closure of Rugby Central has reverted to its original name of "Rugby".

History
The station was opened on 15 March 1899. It had services between London Marylebone and Manchester Piccadilly via Leicester Central, Nottingham Victoria and Sheffield Victoria. As well as various cross country services to places such as Southampton and Hull.

The station was run by the Great Central Railway from 1899 until it was grouped into the London and North Eastern Railway in 1923. It then came under the management of British Railways in 1948.

Rugby Central was roughly midway along the Great Central Main Line (GCML) and was a stopping point for express services as well as a changeover point for local services. Until the early 1960s the station was served by about six London – Manchester expresses daily, and was the terminus for local services from Aylesbury or Woodford Halse to the south, and Leicester Central or Nottingham Victoria from the north. The line was then run down and the express services were removed, leaving only the local services and an infrequent semi-fast service to London.

Most of the GCML was closed on 5 September 1966 under Reshaping of British Railways. On this date, the line south of Rugby Central and north of Nottingham Victoria was closed. The section between Rugby Central and Nottingham (initially Nottingham Victoria, later cut back to Nottingham Arkwright Street) remained open as self-contained branch carrying a DMU operated local passenger service until 3 May 1969; the station formally closed on 5 May.

Buildings and situation
Rugby Central was situated on Hillmorton Road roughly half a mile east of the town centre. It was much smaller and less important than Midland Station. Rugby Central was built to the standard Great Central design with a single island platform which was 600 ft long.

The booking office was at street level, built onto the side of the road bridge over the railway with the platform below. The platform was accessed by a covered staircase from the booking office. On the platform there were three waiting rooms and a toilet block, which was the only building not covered by the canopy.

On the preserved Great Central Railway in Leicestershire, the preserved Loughborough Central station is a similar design to the former Rugby Central.

The site today


The station buildings were demolished after closure, although the platform still exists. Rugby Borough Council bought the whole of the former Great Central Railway trackbed through Rugby in 1970, and it is now a nature walk called the Great Central Way.

The former goods yard was west of the station, and was used as a timber yard until the mid-1990s when houses were built on it.