Great Central Railway: Decline and Fall

By John Evans (softback, Amberley Publishing, 96pp, £14.99, ISBN 9781 4456 95570) WAS Dr Beeching the villain of popular perception who destroyed so much of our beloved railway network, or a hero who saved it? That is a question that will be asked in perpetuity.

When he was appointed from outside the nationalised railway and delegated with the task of stemming its soaring losses, at a time when the public was switching en masse to motor road transport, Beeching drew up fundamental principles to reshape the railway network.

Apart from closing the myriad of country branch lines, he targeted main routes which‘doubled up’, a legacy of 19th century competition between rival pre-grouping railways to serve the same destinations, often from the same starting points.

The Great Central and its London Extension were late in the day, and, at the Grouping of 1923, it often played second fiddle to the older-established

parallel routes which provided a backbone for its new owner the LNER.

Decades later, Beeching had the Great Central firmly in his sights: why keep this duplicate route alive?

His recommendations were limited not only by the remit of his employer, the Ministry of Transport, which envisaged a future that lay with roads and not rail, but by a lack of foresight. Back in 1963, who envisaged a time when two (or even three)-car households were the norm, and many roads were all but permanently gridlocked?

It is now just over half a century since the final demise of the Great Central route, as superbly captured in both words and quality colour pictures in this attractively-priced volume.

Did those who endorsed the closure recommendations for the route take into account that it was built to Berne loading gauge, and a quarter of a century later, we would have the Channel Tunnel and its associated rail link? Back in 1969, nobody had heard of High Speed 2, but today the moribund GC route seems to have emerged as the‘thinking man’s alternative’to a very expensive project that requires so much unspoiled countryside to be dug up to perform a similar function.

In 1969, a heritage scheme like no

other was set up. Not content to save narrow gauge lines in Wales or closed British Rail branch lines, the Main Line Preservation Group set out to save a section of trunk railway.

The fruits of its endeavours are legendary, and today’s Great Central Railway is not only a world leader in the sector, but is on the way to reconnecting the outskirts of Leicester and Nottingham once again.

This fascinating volume may therefore be considered a ‘prequel’ to the magnificent heritage line that we have today.

SPLENDID ACCOUNT OF TIMES BEFORE TODAY’S GCR