Ghosts of the Great Central Railway Mainline Season 2
Welcome to a brand new series of Ghosts of the Great Central Mainline. We're going to be visiting new locations and see some remains of the of GCR route throughout Northamptonshire and Warwickshire.
In this first episode we are north of the town of Rugby near the village of Newton. These days the M6 motorway crosses the trackbed, severing the route. We follow the line south picking up old cuttings, bridges, signal posts and other remains. We end at the viaduct that crossed the Oxford Canal, where we can see one of the impressive high piers towering above the valley below.
Great Central Mainline was built as the London Extension of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire railway. Opening in 1899, it was designed to be as straight as possible with as little gradient as possible. Speed was the aim and express trains travelled between London Marylebone, Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester. It was the last UK mainline to be built before HS1 over a century later.
It thrived initially, however with a lack of upkeep, neglect and dwindling usage, it was mothballed during the great railway rationalisation of Dr Beeching in the 1960s - known as the Beeching Axe. Lost railway artefacts and relics are left scattered along the route.
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