Whetstone to Ashby Magna

These pages reflect the state of the line in 2002. Click on the structure numbers (black circles) on the map to the left to see a description of each structure with pictures where available. Starting from Bridge 397 and working Southwards will provide a basic description of the line as walked.

History

The section of line between Whetstone and Ashby Magna stations formed part of the third construction contract on the line. This contract covered a distance of 15 miles 69 chains from Aylestone to Rugby, and was awarded to Messrs Topham, Jones and Railton, a firm of London based contractors who numbered among their achievements Singapore Harbour, Gibraltar Dockyards and the Johor Causeway. At £281,589 it was the cheapest of the seven contracts on the line and the last contract on the Northern Division of the London Extension. Construction began in November 1894.

Along with the rest of the line it opened to freight traffic on 25 July 1898 with passenger traffic commencing on 15 March 1899.

The section between Whetstone and Ashby Magna consisted of a steady rise to the South at the lines ruling gradient of 1:176. The formation is mainly carried on embankment, although sections of cuttings do exist. The line passes over the former Midland Counties Railway line from Leicester to Rugby and, from 1959, was also carried over the new M1 motorway. The M1 runs very closely parallel with the GCR for most of this section - indeed much of Ashby Magna goods yard, along with the Station Masters house, were lost to the motorways embankment.

Whetstone station was an early closure on 4 March 1963, but Ashby Magna continued on to the bitter end, surviving the lines sad truncation in 1966 as an unmanned halt on the DMU service between Nottingham and Rugby until total closure on the 3rd May 1969.