This book illustrates the importance of Rugby as a railway hub and relates fascinating tales from the author’s memories of growing up in the town.

In steam days, Rugby was one of those places on the railway map that was a magnet for railway enthusiasts, with seven lines converging on Rugby Midland station, and the former Great Central crossing the West Coast Main Line at right angles by a bridge just south of Rugby Midland station.

Memories of the author growing up in the town are vividly illustrated in his photographs that show how the railway scene changed gradually.

Images of the Pre-Grouping era contrast with electrically hauled trains on the West Coast Main Line, which in turn were superseded by Pendolinos.

Interesting photographs illustrate the lines to Leamington, the Trent Valley Line, Market Harborough, Leicester, Northampton, and London Euston, which all converged at Rugby Midland station, as well as images of the Great Central route from Sheffield and the East Midlands to London Marylebone served by Rugby Central station.

Unlike many books of this nature that are just a mix of unrelated photographs, this book is divided into 12 sections, each illustrating a specific part of the area’s railways, and an Introduction that gives a clear insight into the author’s background and life growing up with Rugby’s railways.

Starting with the ‘London & Birmingham route’, it continues with the Trent Valley line, the southern approaches, the central area, and sidings and yards.

There follows the interestingly titled ‘Trunk Route to Unwanted Nuisance’ Illustrating the Midland Railway route from Rugby to Leicester, the Leamington and Stamford lines, and the so-called new line via Weedon.

The book concludes with an appreciation of the fondly remembered Great Central titled ‘A Nicer Way To Travel’.

Published in August 2024 by Amberley Publishing and written by Martyn Hilbert, this soft-cover book measures around 165 mm x 234 mm and has 96 pages and 160 photographs.

It has a published price of £15.99, but at the time of writing, it can be purchased for £14.39 from Amberley Publishing and for £12.39 from Amazon.

The author reveals that the top left photograph below of Liverpool & Manchester Railway 0-4-2 Lion was taken by his father when he was invited to attend the closed station at Dunchurch during filming for a television series.

The author’s meticulous eye for perfection is revealed when, elsewhere in the book, he says that the photograph at the top right took him six hours to prepare for publication.

Instantly recognisable by anyone familiar with Rugby is the incredible signal gantry seen at the bottom left, once reputed to be the largest signal gantry in the world.

A pleasing feature of the book is the inclusion of several diagrams showing the layout of lines in the area, such as those on the right below.

Rugby was not just the West Coast Main Line and the Great Central which crossed it at right angles, there were also several branch lines that converged on the town, one of them being the line to Stamford shown in the pages below.

The author tells how not all these lines and their stations were victims of the Beeching cuts, as the photo at the top left shows Clifton Mill station which closed in 1953 after passenger traffic collapsed when a local bus service started running through the village.,

The Great Central at Rugby gave local enthusiasts the opportunity to spot interlopers from the Western Region as they worked inter-regional trains through to Leicester, such as the Hall Class locomotive seen at the top left. At the bottom left is a sight that must have been replicated many thousands of times, with an Eastern Region 2-8-0 hauling a trainload of coal, The casual observer may be forgiven for thinking that the Stanier Pacific at the top left is on the West Coast Main Line, but unusually it is on the Great Central on a rail tour from Nottingham to Swindon.

For anyone thinking of producing a book describing railways in a specific area, this book serves as an ideal model.

Instead of a random selection of photographs in no particular order, the author has divided the book into well-ordered sections, each with a succinct but relevant title.

Unlike many books from this publisher, all pages are numbered, and each pair of pages includes the section title in the headings.

The front cover is also a pleasant change from the usual rather dull and uninteresting offering.

Each section has an introductory text that gives a brief background to the relevant content, and all photographs have additional information that could only have been written by someone with intimate knowledge of the area.

With its large selection of interesting photographs and informative text, the book will be of interest to railway enthusiasts everywhere and well deserves a rating of 5/5.

The book is available to purchase from Amazon and Amberley Publishing.

We would like to thank Amberley Publishing for providing RailAdvent with a copy of the book for review.