track connection facing Rugby to exchange goods trains with the adjacent Great Western Railway. This connection was doubled in 1908 in order to cope with the increased traffic. The local passenger service was withdrawn by British Railways in June 1959, and the local goods sidings were closed in the early 1960s, however the line continued to see use as a diversionary route by both passenger and freight trains until 1965, during the electrification of the West Coast Main Line. When this finished the line was closed as a through route on 4 April 1966, and the line closed between Marton Junction and Leamington, with the remainder of the track singled. The only remaining traffic was goods trains serving the Rugby Cement works at both Rugby and Southam, the latter of which was located on a stub of the former line to Weedon and so required trains to reverse at Marton Junction. Trains to the cement works at Southam continued until June 1985, with the track being lifted two years later. Infrequent trains served the cement works at Rugby until July 1991. The track at this end remained, and remains in place however. Route From Rugby, the general course of the line was southwest as far as Hunningham after which it swung west for the last five miles into Leamington. Most of the route was straight and lightly graded. For the first few miles out of Rugby the line was mainly routed in shallow cuttings but west of Birdingbury it crossed the River Leam on a low viaduct. From there it ran across the flat open expanse of Marton Moor before cutting through high ground to follow the valley of the River Leam for the last few miles. The route had three civil engineering features of note: the deep cutting at Marton Junction; the lofty wrought-iron bridge spanning the cutting; and the viaduct over the canal near Radford Semele. The cutting, approximately deep, took the line through a north–south ridge of high ground south of Hunningham. An ancient track, Ridgeway Lane, ran along the top of the ridge and met the cutting at its deepest point so the LNWR built a single-span wrought-iron trussed lattice girder bridge to carry the lane over the railway. At the time it was built (1851) this was the longest such bridge ever constructed. In later years, four lattice columns and cross-ties were added to reinforce