The Rugby Locomotive Testing Station was a British railway testing plant in

Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

. Originally envisioned by

Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as part ...

Nigel Gresley Sir Herbert Nigel Gresley (19 June 1876 – 5 April 1941) was a British railway engineer. He was one of Britain's most famous steam locomotive engineers, who rose to become Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the London and North Eastern Rail ...

as a joint LMS- LNER operation, construction was started in the late 1930s but then deferred by the war. It was eventually opened in 1948 after both its owners had become constituents of

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commis ...

. The location was one with access to both LMS and LNER main lines (

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

and

Great Central Main Line The Great Central Main Line (GCML), also known as the London Extension is a former main line railway in the United Kingdom. The line was opened in 1899, built by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR), which had been renamed t ...

) respectively. The GWR meanwhile had their own testing plant at

Swindon Works Swindon Works was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1843 in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. It served as the principal west England maintenance centre until closed in 1986. History In 1835, Parliament approved the construction of the Great ...

. There was a

rolling road Maryland Route 166 (MD 166) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The state highway runs from Interstate 195 (I-195) in Arbutus north to MD 144 in Catonsville. MD 166 consists of two sections: a short freeway section that serve ...

to test engines. The testing station was relatively short lived; the final test was made in 1965, and the plant was officially closed in 1970, however the building continued to be used until the early-1980s as an outpost of the

British Rail Research Division The British Rail Research Division was a division of the state-owned railway company British Rail (BR). It was charged with conducting research into improving various aspects of Britain's railways, particularly in the areas of reliability and e ...

, until it was demolished in 1984. The site is now an industrial estate. The records of the Rugby LTS are part of the National Railway Collection held by the

National Railway Museum The National Railway Museum (NRM) is a museum in York, England, forming part of the Science Museum Group. The museum tells the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It is the home of the national collection of historical ...

. News reel footage of the site is available on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

References

External links

Rugby Locomotive Testing Station - Warwickshire Railways entry
{{coord, 52.379236, -1.243421, region:GB, display=title British Rail research and development Railway depots in England Buildings and structures in Rugby, Warwickshire 1948 establishments in England 1970 disestablishments in England