Kenilworth Junction

London North Western Railway:

Midland Railway:

Stratford Midland Junction Railway

The Shakespeare Route

Kenilworth Junction

Kenilworth Junction was created by the building of the 'cut off' branch to Berkswell which was authorised by an Act of 18th July 1881. It opened for passenger traffic on 2nd March 1884 and to passengers on 2nd June with an initial service of six Down and seven Up trains on weekdays only. Built by the LNWR as an alternative route to the GWR's services between Leamington and Birmingham, the line never attracted the number of passengers which the GWR route attracted. In 1910 only six trains used the line on weekdays, two being Rugby to Birmingham via Leamington services but this had reduced to just one service by the time the railways were nationalised in 1948. The route was however much more useful for the transportation of goods traffic as it avoided Coventry and the West Coast Main Line at Rugby. For a more detailed history Robin Leach's book Rails to Kenilworth and Milverton cannot be bettered. Local Leamington to Coventry passenger services continued until 18th January 1965 when the service was withdrawn. The Berkswell 'cut off', which had been extensively used in the mid-1960s as a diversionary route during the electrification of the Birmingham to London and Trent Valley lines, was closed on 1st March 1969.

The LNWR had invested considerably in the locality in the mid-to-late 1880s building not just the Berkswell branch, but also carried out the doubling of the Leamington to Rugby line together with the the doubling of the Leamington to Coventry branch as far as the Junction. This reflected both the need of the LNWR to compete with the GWR for the lucrative Leamington to Birmingham passenger traffic as well as providing alternative routes for south bound goods traffic. Both the London to Birmingham and Trent Valley lines were at full capacity and therefore there was a pressing need for the LNWR to provide goods traffic with alternative routes. The Nuneaton to Coventry line was considered by the LNWR at the time as being one of its most profitable secondary lines. As the Coventry to Leamington line was a significant adjunct to this line its not unreasonable to assume it too was a significant generator of revenue for the company. The junction at Berkswell was soon removed to eliminate a 95 mph limit on the Up line, the rest of the branch being lifted also in 1965, except for a short length retained at Berkswell. This was a Down Refuge Siding occasionally used for stabling the Royal Train.

Ray Sharratt, who worked out of Coventry shed, writes 'The siding from the junction (see image 'lnwrkj178') was referred to as 'Streets Siding' and in earlier days it serviced a few different business. During my time at Coventry between 1959 and 1963, the only business served by the siding was Stickleys scrap metal yard. We would drop empty coal wagons into the yard and then bring them out loaded with scrap a few days later. It was a severe climb back up to the junction and two loaded wagons were the maximum that our Ivatt (Class 2) 2-6-0 could manage. That leads me onto images 'lnwrkj3128' and 'lnwrkj3129' – After finishing our shunting movements, it was normal for us to draw our train onto the Berkswell branch and stop in a similar position as the engine in the photographs. We would then wait for the local Leamington to Nuneaton passenger train to pass the junction and continue along the single line to Gibbet Hill. We would then reverse out onto the 'main line' and then follow the passenger train to Coventry. I would suggest that the engine in the photographs is probably doing something similar. The only signal for this movement was from the 'main line' and onto the branch No signals existed to set back onto the 'main line'. It was done by word of mouth by the signalman. If you note where the points are situated by the engine, it positions the engine directly opposite the signal box. This meant that the signalman could not forget the engine and could easily pass the necessary instructions to the crew to set back. Regarding the engine lamp code, it is displaying one lamp over the front left buffer. This was the code for a local trip working freight. The 8th, September, 1963 was a Sunday and I would think that the engine was working an engineers/permanent way train and was standing on the branch out of the way of the workings. The wheelbarrow would perhaps support this theory along with the reporting number on the engine. The footplate looks deserted and I would suggest that the crew were in the signal box socialising with the signalman'.

Much of the information on this and other pages of Warwickshire Railways is derived from articles or books listed in our 'bibliography'.