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LMS Route: Rugby to Market Harborough

Clifton Mill Station: lnwrclift3350

Brush Type 2 A1A-A1A D5631 is seen approaching Rugby in 1966 having passed the long closed Clifton Mill station

Brush Type 2 A1A-A1A D5631 is seen approaching Rugby in 1966 having passed the long closed Clifton Mill station. Having just passed through Clifton Mill station and level crossing on the outskirts of Rugby, D5631 is at the point where the up and down Market Harborough lines split as they wind their way in and out of the town. This shot was taken from the overbridge in Clifton Upon Dunsmore village and the train will pass over the golf course viaduct (which is still there) before joining the WCML on the 'Northampton flyover' at Rugby's south end. The train is made up of six old LMS Stanier coaches and just visible is a four wheeled van tacked on the back end.

Paul Burrows writes 'that by 1971 the track and overhead equipment had gone. Presumably when it was wired up, the engineers must have known it was to have been a relatively short-term measure (for changing from diesel to electric locomotives during modernisation) unless they expected the associated District Electric Depot (DED) to remain open for years after and still use the full electrified 'loop' facility - from upside to the downside of Rugby station. The only question I don't have an answer to (as it is before my time!) is, did electric loco's (light engine) and Class 304/310 EMU's use the loop - going up to Clifton Mill and back again - after the line's 6th June 1966 closure date? Or was the electric depot useage curtailed to as far as Butlers Leap around that date? Potentially - everything could have been closed from that date?! Anyway, today the wires go as far as the aforementioned Butlers Leap bridge, and is referred to as "Peterborough Branch Siding"

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