But as the fortunes of some had risen, others had declined, and tomorrow (Saturday) will be the 50th anniversary of a more modest event – the end of passenger services at Leamington Avenue station.

More parochial it may be, but it was part of a larger picture.

The closure was an attempt by British Rail to cut its losses in the face of competition from the roads, and the rise of the motor car.

Railway enthusiast Patrick Kingston was one of many travelling on the final journey from Rugby to Leamington.

He said: "We were really in the motor age. Road transport killed it. The buses went nearer the towns and villages and they were more flexible.

"A few months after it closed was the opening of the M1 motorway. Nobody wanted railways, they wanted cars."

The axe was wielded by the then chairman of the British Transport Commission General Sir Brian Robertson.

"Oh, Sir Brian" was chalked on the front of the engine.

Engineering students wearing clerical collars carried a coffin bearing the words "Leamington Line, RIP" through the streets of Rugby and a woman dressed as Britannia welcomed the train to Leamington.

The station had opened in 1854, a little over nine years after the railway first came to Leamington.

It was replaced by a new and enlarged station in 1860. Originally built by the London and North Western Railway, it was the first railway line to Coventry, a year before Great Western Railways built a line coming south from Oxford.

Trains ran through Offchurch and what is now Sydenham, serving stations at Marton, Birdingbury and Dunchurch.

The line had full facilities for farming, and transported cattle, livestock, produce, freight and coal. At one time, carrier pigeons were among the animals shuttled along the line.

By the 1950s passenger numbers had fallen. The service was used by many workers at the British Thompson Houston Company and English Electric. After the end of passenger services the line was kept open for freight for nine years before being dismantled.

Its passing did not leave Leamington unscathed. Its bridge across High Street was removed in 1968, leaving behind stone piers.

To those who can remember the line, not having it there can still feel strange. Mr Kingston added: "When I go to High Street and see the bridge not there, to me it is like seeing a person with an amputated limb."