The Leamington–Rugby line was a 15-mile branch line built by the London & North Western Railway (LNWR) and opened in 1851. The branch connected Leamington with the mainline from London to Birmingham (now the West Coast Main Line which had been opened in 1838 by the LNWR’s predecessor, the London & Birmingham Railway (L&BR). Leamington ended up with two stations - Leamington Avenue (sounds posh, but then this is Leamington Spa after all!) for the Rugby branch, and the GWR’s adjacent station (this is still there, serving The Chiltern Line).
One of the engineering features of the branch was the five-arch brick-built Offchurch Viaduct which carried the route over the Grand Union Canal and adjacent low ground: the arch above the canal itself was built with skewed courses.
It’s actually quite impressive. A fair bit of the branch (there was a branch branch slightly east as well) stayed open long after Passenger traffic ceased in 1959, serving the Long Itchington cement works until the mid 80’s. All goes by road now, but at least a lot of the track beds are open as cycleways.
Anyway, this is my first entry. No photographic masterpieces these, that’s just not possible with a springer spaniel in tow (11 miles and he’s STILL charging around the garden at 100mph!)
