Trains at: Market Harborough, MML, 21/02/26

A brief but enjoyable session spent at Market Harborough on the Midland Mainline where we see services from East Midlands Railway and freight from GBRF and Freightliner.

Market Harborough has a rich history for such a small station, the original station was built and opened by the London and North Western Railway in 1850 and was situated along its branch line that ran from Stamford to Rugby. This would then allow connections to London and Birmingham.

The Midland Railway then started to share the station when they opened their line from Leicester to Bedford and Hitchin in 1857. This was then joined by another line in 1859 when the London and North Western Railway opened another branch line from Northampton to Market Harborough, part of that line now forms the Northampton & Lamport Railway.

The new lines saw a huge increase in the amount of traffic using the station, and as such the Midland Railway opened a brand new line that was running higher than the original lines, but would cross over the LNWR track then run parallel to a new joint station where the current one now stands.

Following the events of the Beeching cuts in 1960 the line that ran from Northampton to Market Harborough saw a massive dip in passenger traffic, with the last passenger train running in 1966 and the last freight train using the line in 1981. From that point the station was no longer a junction and became what it is now.

My next station will be Kettering.

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