Northampton by-passed?

On 9 Sep, 11:20, Michael Bell <mich...@beaverbell.co.uk> wrote:
> My mother (who was born near Northampton) told me that when the
> Birmingham - London railway was built, Northampton decided that it
> didn't want this new thing through the town, so refused it entry, and
> Northampton was by-passed.

Wikipedia mentions two theories, a gradient one, and this one
(landowners grumbling) -- although the loop came 30 - 40 years after
the main line.

"chunkyoldcortina" <chunky@example.com> wrote

> Then there was a link from
> Roade to Market Harborough, with "Castle" station being built.

Northampton to Market Harborough lost its passenger service before the
Beeching era. It then regained it briefly around 1970, when the Midland
route sleeper to Glasgow was diverted to start from Euston instead of St
Pancras. It could have ended up as the main route to Leicester and
Nottingham, when BR were plotting to close St Pancras and divert its
InterCity services to Euston, either via Northampton and Market Harborough
or, less likely, via Nuneaton (reverse) as suggested in the Beeching Part 2
Trunk Lines Report. St Pancras suburban services would have been diverted,
as they eventually were, via the Widened lines to Moorgate.

Peter

Michael Bell wrote:
> My mother (who was born near Northampton) told me that when the
> Birmingham - London railway was built, Northampton decided that it
> didn't want this new thing through the town, so refused it entry,

Perhaps it was one of Paul Witherington's ancestors?

Cheers

mark-r

Peter Masson wrote:
It could have ended up as the main route to Leicester and
> Nottingham, when BR were plotting to close St Pancras and divert its
> InterCity services to Euston, either via Northampton and Market Harborough
> or, less likely, via Nuneaton (reverse) as suggested in the Beeching Part 2
> Trunk Lines Report.

Wasn't retention of the line from Rugby to Leicester also on the cards
(coupled with the closure of the MML)?

"Mark Annand" <mark.annand@bebop.zetnet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:48c6bbc8$0$771$4c56ba96@master.news.zetnet.ne t...
> Peter Masson wrote:
> It could have ended up as the main route to Leicester and
> > Nottingham, when BR were plotting to close St Pancras and divert its
> > InterCity services to Euston, either via Northampton and Market
Harborough
> > or, less likely, via Nuneaton (reverse) as suggested in the Beeching
Part 2
> > Trunk Lines Report.
>
> Wasn't retention of the line from Rugby to Leicester also on the cards
> (coupled with the closure of the MML)?

IIRC the MRF line from Rugby to Leicester had gone before closure of St
Pancras was considered.

Peter
(old enough to have seen a dmu on the level crossing over the A5 at Willey)

On Sep 9, 1:26 pm, "Paul Rigg" <g0...@m> wrote:

> It is true that Northampton did not at first want the railway (neither did
> Worcester) . But after it was built they regretted it......

Wasn't this also true of the original proposed route of the GWR which
was
supposed to go through Uxbridge & Windsor eventually passing through
West Drayton and Slough respectively from which branches were
subsequently built.

MattM

On Sep 9, 4:01 pm, "Peter Masson" <peter.mass...@> wrote:

> t. St Pancras suburban services would have been diverted,
> as they eventually were, via the Widened lines to Moorgate.

< pedant >

Not *all* St.Pancras suburban services were ever diverted to Moorgate.
In fact, not even a majority were.

Diesel LH and DMUs served both St.Pancras and Moorgate post Beeching.
When 25 kV electric Bed-Pan came in, the core service was half-hourly
St.Pancras Bedford and half hourly Moorgate St.Albans. When Thameslink
came in, eventually all services were removed from St.Pancras true -
but only a fraction went (and still do, for now) to Moorgate - the
significant majority went via Snow Hill.

And Moorgate closes soonly ...

I'd have let you get away with that if you had not ended ''via the
Widened lines'' with '' to Moorgate''.

< / pedant >

--
Nick