Description

Although it would have been nice to have modelled Rugby (Midland) station in it`s entirety, with it`s proper overall roof, which has now sadly been removed, the work involved would have been immense, and more significantly, would have taken up too much space.
A representation of Northampton station was considered, but operational interest was significantly less. A project, perhaps, for my next N gauge layout.....?

With this in mind, attention was again turned to Rugby. With modelling the main station out of the question, it was decided to model a fictional additional station. Rugby used to have a second station (Central) at Hillmorton on the old Great Central Railway. This is where the fictional element comes into effect. On my layout, part of the GCR has been reopened, forming some important links with Rugby and the West Coast Mainline.

Although once minnows, VS Rugby have reached the top flight in the football league, and have played at the highest level for several years! The extra supporters from the expanded town no doubt contributing to this. In order to serve the extra population, and to link the WCML with the Great Central line, a new station was built on the outskirts of the town near the TMD. The stations can be seen on the map above.

The link to the reopened section of the GCR brings in some interesting new passenger services and freight trains.

Although not a 'parkway' station in the true sense of the word, as the station is built in (and under) a built up area on the edge of town. There is, however, a large ground and multi-storey car-park for the station.
Besides, we needed to come up with a name, and it led on nicely from my previous layout based on Didcot Parkway. Any excuse will do!

St.Johns station was also opened to the north of the town. However, this station was never a success, and despite a few local stopping services, has been run down for many years.

"But it`s not real" you may say. It doesn`t matter. Modelling a layout presents opportunities to model either reallity, fiction, or even a bit of both. Besides, there have been various rumours about a parkway station being built to the north of the town serving a re-opened chiltern line. However, this has no connection with my layout. And who knows what the future holds for Rugby station? Today, a shadow of it`s former self.....