 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
Great Central Railway (preserved)The Great Central Railway (GCR) is a heritage railway in Leicestershire. The Southern section runs for 8 ½ miles from Loughborough to the northern outskirts of Leicester. The former Belgrave and Birstall station was demolished and the terminus (named Leicester North) built nearby. It is the only heritage railway in the UK to have double track. North of Loughborough, at Ruddington, is the Nottingham Heritage Centre, a smaller railway. In the future the two railways will be connected by means of a bridge which will be reinstated at Loughborough to cross the Midland Main Line
HistoryThe Great Central Main Line was built in 1899 connecting Sheffield to London via Nottingham and Leicester. It was the last main line to be built in the country, and was built to a continental loading gauge, with flat gradients designed for speed. The line was transferred to the London Midland Region of British Railways and listed as duplicate of the Midland Main Line, and was closed in 1966 as part of the Beeching Axe, apart from the most Southern section into London. Local groups opposed the closure, and a small preservation concern was started at Loughborough.
In the 1990s, a campaign was launched to fund the double track project. Apart from aesthetic benefits, the double track enables good timekeeping. Route descriptionLoughborough sectionLoughborough Central Station is a medium-sized station set in the 1960s and has an extensive canopy. It also has a small museum. Loughborough shed ) is to the North, and is open to the public. Travelling south from there, the first station is Quorn and Woodhouse (SK549161), where there is better car parking than at Loughborough and disabled access (Loughborough only being accessable via stairs). Quorn is laid out to appear as it would in the 1940s. Near Swithland, the railway crosses Swithland Viaduct over Swithland Reservoir (SK558137). At Swithland Sidings (SK564130) there is a small freight yard but no station (though one was originally planned). This is just north of Rothley (SK568121), set the 1900s, just after completion of the line. There is a carriage shed at Rothley but it is not open to the public. At Rothley, the double track ends but the line continues single-tracked to Leicester North, (SK587082), where the line terminates. Leicester North was built in the 1990s, and is just south of the site of the former Belgrave and Birstall station. There is a tourist bus that runs from Leicester North to Leicester and the National Space Centre. Nottingham sectionNottingham Heritage Centre is located in Ruddington SK574323, situated on a former Ministry of Defence site off the main line. A chord joins the Heritage Centre to the main line, but trains have to reverse to travel south. After passing the site of Gotham sidings and the trackbed of the Gotham branch, the first station is Rushcliffe Halt in Rushcliffe SK551276, which is as far as trains normally travel. East Leake SK546262, the only station with an underbridge rather than an overbridge is further south but this has not yet been reopened. Continuing South Fox Hill tunnel SK535235, Stanford Viaduct SK542216 over the River Soar. The line then approaches Loughborough across the floodplain of the River Soar on an embankment and there is a chord that connects the line to the Midland Main Line SK545204. Between here and Loughborough locomotive shed is "The Gap", a section of embankment and a bridge over the MML and that need to be reinstated to join the two concerns together. That is a long term (and expensive!) project and in the mean time there are plans to construct a new "Loughborough North" (or "Loughborough High Level" depending on who you talk to!) station on the embankment near the A60 road bridge. This would allow easy interchange with Midland Main Line trains with trains from the GCR(N) (and later when the Gap is bridged, the Greater Great Central). LocomotivesLocomotives marked with an asterisk (*) are not permanent residents on the Great Central Railway
Nottingham Heritage CentreThe line from Loughborough to Ruddington on the southern outskirts of Nottingham was kept intact with a spur built with spoil from the embankment between the Grand Union Canal and the MML connecting the MML to the GCML. This was to enable access to a Ministry of Defence base there, and later British Gypsum works. After the MOD base was closed, the Nottingham Heritage Centre was established at a former MOD base at Ruddington, Nottinghamshire. The eventual plan is to reinstate the embankment between the Grand Union Canal and the MML and the bridge over the MML to give a 18-mile long railway. Locomotives
How to get thereExternal linksThe contents of this article are licensed from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.
How to see transparent copy 01-04-2007 01:21:04 |
|
