Ashby and Nuneaton Joint Railway

Ashby and Nuneaton Joint Railway
Construction of the Ashby & Nuneaton joint railway near Dadlington using a Manning Wardle tank engine
Route map Legend Leicester– Burton upon Trent line Overseal and Moira Moira Donisthorpe Coalville Town Measham Charnwood Forest Rly Leicester– Burton upon Trent line Snarestone Hugglescote Heather and Ibstock Shackerstone Junction Shackerstone Battlefield Line Railway Market Bosworth Shenton Stoke Golding Higham on the Hill Trent Valley line (West Coast Main Line) Birmingham– Peterborough line Nuneaton Abbey Street Nuneaton Coventry– Nuneaton line Hinckley Trent Valley line (West Coast Main Line) Birmingham– Peterborough line

The Ashby and Nuneaton Joint Railway was a pre-grouping railway company in the English Midlands, built to serve the Leicestershire coalfield. Both the Midland Railway and the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) wished to build a line on similar alignments, and they agreed to build jointly. Construction began in 1869 and the railway was opened in 1873. It linked Moira (near Ashby-de-la-Zouch) and Coalville with Nuneaton. Mineral traffic was busy, and the line formed a useful link for through goods trains. Some long distance passenger operation took place over the line, but it was never successful in carrying passengers.

The LNWR sponsored the Charnwood Forest Railway which branched off the Joint Railway near Coalville and ran to a terminus at Loughborough. The intention had been to connect to the Midland Railway main line there, but that attempt was refused. The passenger traffic on the Joint Railway and the CFR ceased in 1931, and the goods activity progressively ran down from 1964 onwards. The entire network is now closed to ordinary commercial railway operation, but a heritage railway operates near Market Bosworth.