London Midland Scottish Railway Route: Nuneaton to Leamington

Kenilworth Station: lnwrk160

The original Kenilworth Station was opened on Monday 9th December 1844 although it had been complete for some months. The original station was a modest affair but in keeping with the architecture of the very early railways secondary stations. The platform is barely raised from the ground and in many respects is similar to later Continental and North American railway practice where the steps of the coach were designed to allow the passenger to alight near to ground level.

When viewing early railway practice we should not forget that it was evolutionary and was in many ways best to be considered as a the development of the stage coach. The locomotive was a mechanical replacement of the horse drawing a number of road carriage type vehicles on a metal rail roadway. Early railway carriages were therefore developments of the stagecoach being two or three such units built on a single chassis. The stagecoach practice of conveying luggage on the roof continued on the railways until the very early 1860s when the abandonment of the practice could be considered with the introduction of luggage compartments.

Robin Leach records in his book 'Rails to Kenilworth & Milverton' that the last vehicle seen above was a guards/luggage van. It is more likely to be a guards van and not a luggage van as Richard Foster in his book, 'New Street - The years up to 1860', records a LNWR locomotive minute of 18th September 1859 ordering that in future no more coaches were to be built with luggage rails on the roof (although this was rescinded in October 1862). The gentleman in the top hat and long tails next to this vehicle was most likely a railway policeman, the precursor of the signalman (hence the signalman's nickname 'bobbies'.

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