The Railway, Oakham

No need to guess where this one is, although (curiously) Station Road doesn't actually lead from the town centre. Anyway, the modestly attractive exterior belies the unsympathetically modernised two-part interior that has a limited amount of furniture and very little in the way of decoration. Neither of the handpumps were working either (although one did have a reversed Doom Bar clip), so had a John Smith's (£1.80, half) before moving swiftly on.

A good solid locals' pub with 3 rooms. The main front bar has tables at one end and sofas at the other, with a few TV screens. Behind this is a rather dark bar with a pool table, while round the side is a large and well-equipped function room, used for the regular live music sessions. Outside there is a patio area. Draught ales are Doom Bar and a changing guest, which on this visit was Black Sheep Monty Python's Flying Circus.

A very simple and basic locals boozer, living the railway pub cliche. Take away the tat and strip it back, it could be a destination. Three pumps with two on; Banks Hit the Bar and Adnams Ghost Ship, which obviously hadn’t seen life for a fair while, warm and listless. A live band was on the go out the back and the website pushes live music and TV sports as the pub’s forte. 4.5

Official site of The Railway - www.therailwayoakham.co.uk

Official site of The Railway - www.therailwayoakham.co.uk

The Railway is unsurprisingly quite close Oakhams train station. Once inside the front room ran the width of the pub,the bar was facing and the room carpeted,there was comfy bench seating and small stools,there were four TVs showing football,three showing Newcastle v Liverpool and one showing Blacpool v Wigan,there were loads of football mugs hanging from the ceiling,i could see a small room to the rear but this was empty on our visit. There were two real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Jennings Cumberland which went down well,the other beer was London Pride. The pub was very busy with locals either drinking or watching the football. This is a proper pub,we were quite happy in here. Pub visited 19/10/2013