Northampton Loop Line

Northampton Loop Line
Southbound train emerging into Roade cutting having climbed the incline on the loop line from Northampton to join the main line. The bridge in the distance is on Blisworth to Courteenhall Road
Overview
Type	Heavy rail
System	National Rail
Status	Operational
Locale	Northamptonshire East Midlands West Midlands (region)
Termini	Wolverton (West Coast Main Line) Rugby (West Coast Main Line)
Stations	Two
Operation
Opened	1881
Owner	Network Rail
Operator(s)	London Midland Virgin Trains
Rolling stock	Class 319 Class 350 "Desiro" Class 390 "Pendolino"
Technical
Line length	Approx 23 ^3⁄4 miles (38.2 km)
Number of tracks	Two
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ^1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	25 kV 50Hz AC OHLE
Operating speed	75 mph (120 km/h)

Northampton Loop Line

Legend West Coast Main Line Rugby Hillmorton Junction Rugby Parkway (proposed) Kilsby and Crick Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT) Crick Tunnel Watford Lodge Tunnel Long Buckby Althorp Park Church Brampton to Market Harborough Northampton Northampton-Peterborough Line & Northampton-Bedford Line Blisworth Hunsbury Hill Tunnel Roade Hanslope Junction Castlethorpe Wolverton Milton Keynes Central West Coast Main Line

The Northampton loop is a railway line serving the town of Northampton. It is a branch of the West Coast Main Line, deviating from the faster direct main line which runs to the west. The WCML is a four track line up to either end of the Loop: the 'up' and 'down' fast tracks take the direct route while the 'up' and 'down' slow tracks are diverted via Northampton railway station.

The southern interconnect between the Northampton loop and the direct London-Birmingham main line is at Hanslope Junction, just north of Milton Keynes. The lines continue to run alongside until the two routes diverge north of Roade at the northern end of Roade cutting. The loop line then runs north east for several miles until it reaches Northampton station. After Northampton, the line heads to the north-west for around twenty miles, until it re-joins the main line at Hillmorton Junction at Rugby, just east of Rugby station. The line is a total of 23 ³⁄₄ miles (38.2 km) long.

Services and operations

The majority of passenger services on the line are provided by London Midland using Class 350 electric multiple units. Class 319 units are used for peak-hour express services between Northampton and London Euston. The service consists of three 'semi fast' trains per hour between London Euston and Birmingham New Street. There is also an hourly local service between Northampton and Birmingham. Prior to December 2012 there was also a service to and from Crewe, but a few serve the loop line during morning and evenings and hourly on Sundays.

Virgin Trains provide a small number of Pendolino services to London at the extremes of the day. But nearly all Virgin trains use the direct main line. Line speeds on the loop line are currently limited to 75 mph (120 km/h)^[1] compared to 125 mph (200 km/h) on the fast line, making the line unattractive to the routing of fast services. As of 2011, line speeds were expected to increase to 90 mph (140 km/h) once signalling improvements are in place north of Northampton up to Rugby.^[1]

Long Buckby; the one other station on the line, is served by the London-Birmingham/Northampton-Birmingham services. The London-Crewe service does not stop at Long Buckby except on Sundays.

The line sees heavy freight traffic, as it is used by all freight trains on the southern part of the WCML. Many of these are container trains, with some serving the Daventry International Railfreight Terminal (DIRFT), which is between Northampton and Rugby (thus on the loop line).

Stations

The only stations that are currently operational on the route are Northampton and Long Buckby. Previously there were six stations between Hanslope Junction and Rugby, but only these two survive. The four stations closed were:

• Kilsby and Crick (closed 1960)
• Long Buckby
• Althorp Park (closed 1960)
• Church Brampton (closed 1931)
• Northampton
• Roade (closed 1964)

History

Aerial photo, looking North, shows where the Northampton Loop Line (right) diverges from the main line (left) at Roade.

When the London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) was constructed in the 1830s, Northampton was by-passed, with the line running on high ground to the west via Kilsby Tunnel. Traditionally this was said to have been because Northampton landowners objected to having a railway run to the town.^[2] However, more recently, railway historians have argued that Northampton was by-passed because the gradients would have been too steep for early locomotives to easily cope with. Robert Stephenson the engineer of the London and Birmingham Railway was determined to avoid gradients steeper than 1:330. As Northampton is located in the Nene Valley, 120 feet (37 metres) lower than Blisworth, the closest point the L&BR came, connecting the town would have required gradients steeper than this.^[3][4]

This meant however that Northampton, despite being a large town, did not have direct rail links to London. A branch from the main line was built to Northampton in the early 1840s, the Northampton and Peterborough Railway, from Blisworth, which gave the town indirect rail links to London and Birmingham.

The loop line was constructed in the late 1870s by the London and North Western Railway and was opened in 1881 (by this stage locomotives had become far more powerful). It was constructed to improve rail services to Northampton and give the town a direct link to London. It also had the advantage of doubling capacity on the line from Roade to Rugby without the expense of widening the tunnel at Kilsby.

The line was electrified along with the rest of the WCML during the 1960s in the wake of the BR 1955 Modernisation Plan.

Proposed future development

Warwickshire County Council have proposed a new station on the Northampton Loop Line called Rugby Parkway station, which would be on the south-eastern outskirts of Rugby serving the Hillmorton area of the town. The purpose of this would be to accommodate the future expansion of the town. If it goes ahead the new station is planned to open in 2019.^[5]

Accidents

Two very similar railway accidents occurred on the Northampton loop in 1967 and 1969. The 1967 incident was near the village of Milton Malsor between Roade and Hunsbury Hill tunnel and the other in 1969 near the northern end of Roade cutting.

References

1. Northampton Rail Users Group
2. Kilsby Tunnel
3. Kingscott, Geoffrey, Lost Railways Of Northamptonshire (2008), Countryside Books, ISBN 978-1-84674-108-1
4. Peter H Elliot, Rugby's Railway Heritage,(1985) ISBN 0-907917-06-2
5. "Second train station to be built as Rugby expands". Rugby Advertiser. 15 October 2015. Retrieved 23 November 2015.

Sources

Route map: Bing / Google

• The Last Days Of Steam In Northamptonshire, by John M.C. Healy (1989) ISBN 0-86299-613-9
• Rugby's Railway Heritage, by Peter H Elliot (1985) ISBN 0-907917-06-2
• Kingscott, Geoffrey, Lost Railways Of Northamptonshire (2008), Countryside Books, ISBN 978-1-84674-108-1