Market Harborough: A Railway Crossroads

By John Gough (softback, Midland Railway Society, 104 pages, £14.95, ISBN 9780995514232) NOW a brief stop on the Midland Main Line between Kettering and Leicester, Market Harborough was at one time an important junction, with lines to Rugby, Northampton and Peterborough radiating away from the town. Here is a highly detailed look at the railways of Market Harborough, from the arrival of the LNWR from Rugby to Stamford in May 1850.

It was closely followed by the Midland Railway building its line south from Leicester to Bedford in 1857, and finally the LNWR opened its route south to Northampton.

This book is well endowed with maps and gradient profiles, along with copies of official documents appertaining to the opening of the various stages of the associated

railways. Also within the appendices is a spreadsheet showing patronage and goods traffic between 1872 and1922.

The book is well illustrated with photographs, not only of locomotives but also of various railway structures, such as signalboxes and bridges. SUPERB HISTORY