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GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton
Leamington Station: gwrls3962
On 31st August 1848, the Great Western Railway Loop Line
from the Birmingham & Oxford Junction Railway through the Town of
Leamington was authorised by Parliament. On the same day parliament also
authorised the Great Western Railway to purchase both the Birmingham &
Oxford Junction and the Birmingham, Wolverhampton & Dudley Railways. The
Birmingham and Oxford Junction Railway as authorised on 3rd August 1846 past to
the west of Leamington and the Great Western Railway had originally approached
the L&NWR to share the route that they were constructing into Leamington
from the south-east. The Rugby & Leamington Railway had been authorised on
13th August 1846, purchased by the L&NWR on 17th November 1846 and was
opened as a single line on 1st March 1851. The Great Western Railway's approach
proved unsuccessful and with all but the Birmingham viaduct and Leamington
sections built, there was a need to construct a route of their own through
Leamington.
The engineer for the Great Western Railway (Isambard Kingdom
Brunel) estimated that this Leamington Loop Line would cost £120,000. The
loop line would deviate at Whitnash, cross over the Warwick & Napton Canal
on a 65 foot bowed balloon-topped iron bridge ('gwrls2106') and then run parallel with the L&NWR,
passing through the southern part of the town on a brick viaduct to a new
station. A 105 foot iron plate girder bridge was required to span the High
Street ('gwrls2529'). On the north-west side of the
town, a cast-iron trough aqueduct was needed to carry the Warwick & Napton
Canal over the railway ('gwrw399') and another 160
foot long iron plate girder bridge to carry the railway over the river Avon
('misc_abps171').
The Captain Douglas Galton of the Board of Trade inspected
the railway on 14th September 1852 and reported that he had found all the works
sufficient as regards construction and strength and the mixed gauge complete on
the line between Banbury and the junction with the branch to the L&NWR in
Birmingham (This branch being the Duddeston viaduct). At Leamington only broad
gauge track was laid through the new station, with the mixed gauge carried
outside on a loop to the north-east.
Robert Ferris
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