Rush Hour Trains at: Northampton, WCML, 27/05/26

A fairly uneventful evening spent at Northampton on the West Coast Mainline where we see services from London Northwestern Railway and freight from GBRF, Freightliner and DB Cargo UK.

The station was first opened in 1858 by the London and North Western Railway, this was built along with the line to Market Hanborough because of the vast quantities of iron ore found within Northampton. So rail transportation was the best and most efficient way to get the raw materials out of the town and around the country.

But trying to get a line built in Northampton was not an easy process. The original line is what now runs from Roade to Rugby via Blisworth. The idea of putting a line to Northampton and serving the surrounding areas had been put off for quite some time due to the geographical nature of the landscape.

The original station was a simple single platform with a very basic waiting room, there weren't even any goods yards at the station as all freight was being sent via Bridge Street station.

The station did eventually see significant work done to it in 1880 when the Great Northern and London and North Western Railway joint venture quadrupled the line from Bletchley to Rugby. As such the line saw more trains and more passengers, along with the town of Northampton starting to grow in numbers. As a result of this the rest of the lamd around the station was bought and built upon to house a large goods yard and a larger station. Two bay platforms were built along with 3 new platforms for through traffic.

The next real significant change came when the station was taken under ownership of British Rail.

The station was chosen by British Rail for complete rebuilding in 1965–66 to designs by the architect Ray Moorcroft, as part of the electrification of the West Coast Main Line between Euston and Liverpool. The Victorian station was demolished to be replaced by new structures which were described as "three cowsheds bolted together" and as being of "questionable architectural merit". The station layout remained unchanged: three long through platforms and a number of terminal bays. Standard colour-light signalling was installed in the area but control was not centralised. The current was switched on for the first time between Hillmorton Junction to Northampton on 6 June 1965 for insulation tests, with steam locomotives being withdrawn from the area on 27 September 1965.

The Railway from Northampton to Market Harborough was closed to all traffic in 1981.

My next rush hour film will be from Stevenage on the East Coast Mainline.

Joining me today was TheTransportGuy.

You can find me on Facebook through the group Tornado922, there you will find regular updates, videos and photos from all of my goings on throughout 2026.

You can also find me on Instagram through the name tornado922 where it isn't just rail related content that I produce.

You can find me on TikTok under the name Tornado_922.