Lost railway fly-through: Rugby to Leicester, ex Midland Counties Railway

This is the old Midland Counties Line, which originally formed part of the main line from London to Derby. This section closed in 1961, having been superceded by the Midland main line via Market Harborough.

This video is created from modern day Google Earth imagery, and follows the MCR from Rugby Midland to Leicester London Road, both of which stations are in full use today. However, most of the intervening trackbed is abandoned, but is still clearly delineated by surviving hedges and tree lines, and occasional bridges. There is little or no trace of the intermediate stations: Ullesthorpe, Broughton Astley, Countesthorpe and Wigston South (not to be confused with South Wigston, which is still in use on the Leicester to Nuneaton line).

A clever feature of Google Earth is the 3D rendering of buildings and trees using only satellite imagery. Currently this feature is only available in certain areas of the UK, surrounding centres of population such as Leicester, In this sequence we cross into the Leicester 3D zone after Broughton Astley, just before our path crosses the GCR and M1. Prior to this, there is limited 3D effect obtained from the ground height data, but buildings, trees, bridges and cuttings appear flattend. But beyond this point the 3D effect is much more realistic.