CROSSING THE CHASM
An update on the Great Central Railway’s ‘Bridging the Gap’ project
Something extraordinary is happening at the Great Central Railway, something that has been described as ‘impossible’ for so long it takes time to adjust to the notion it is under way. The two halves of the GCR which meet face to face at Loughborough – but don’t quite touch – are finally being reunified in one of the UK’s biggest preserved railway infrastructure projects.
The goal is no less than the re-creation of an 18-mile main line across the East Midlands, which can be home to the largest locomotives, a preservation centre of excellence within easy reach of millions of people, and a legacy for the next generation which showcases just what can be achieved when people work together.
Talk is easy and you will have heard plenty! Actually building bridges is not so simple.
Fortunately, we can now show you two, which proves our reunification is under way. The missing 550 yards between railheads is being filled steadily, with your unstinting support.
In 2017, an impressive new single-track bridge was built to carry GCR trains above the four tracks of the Midland Main Line. Testament to the excitement of this event, it brought out people in their hundreds, in the small hours of a September Sunday morning, to watch the bridge beams being craned into place, realising a dream cherished for so long.
Now complete, with handrails and blue brick abutments, it is standing ready to welcome traffic. Overlooked by a nearby road bridge, this will be a photographer’s location of choice in the future as locomotives separated by a century of development cross each other, perhaps exchanging whistles and horns. If you’ve ever heard of ‘bridging the gap’, this is that gap well and truly bridged.
Meanwhile the original, elegant GCR bridge over the Grand Union canal has been carefully restored in the last 18 months. Requiring a full closure of the waterway, this no less significant task has been carried out to make sure the structure is fit for another century of service, having last carried trains in 1969.
Both bridge decks have been overhauled ready for double track. On the immediate approach to Loughborough Central station, this will be potentially be a very busy piece of railway. All that remains to put in place are the elegant lattice balustrades, first delayed by
February’s storms and then the coronavirus lockdown. They’ll be put up in due course and this landmark will, once again, be complete.
NO MORE IFS AND BUTS
If you have explored Loughborough’s locomotive shed area, perhaps you’ve even stood on the canal bridge at the very north end of the site, looked northwards and paused to think ‘what if?’. So have we – many times.
It’s close enough to actually see the smoke rising from the chimneys of locomotives standing on the metals of the Great Central Railway (Nottingham). The trackbed is tantalisingly unobstructed. Except, of course, that’s the problem! In our case, unobstructed means no infrastructure to put our tracks upon. The challenges are both financial and physical.
A fibre optic telecoms cable has been re-routed, detailed ground surveys have been undertaken and route alignments have been prepared. Getting just that last element done to a point where we could begin was phenomenally expensive. Gradually, though, with countless meetings, the foresight and encouragement of local stakeholders and the goodwill of so many, the starting line is far behind us and we’re in the middle of the marathon.
If you’re not familiar with the geography, replacing the missing third of a mile between the two railways is far more complex than simply replacing the Midland Main Line bridge.
The Midland was the first railway into Loughborough, with its line heading south to London St Pancras. Decades later, opening in 1899, the Great Central took a more direct route between Nottingham and Leicester, skirting the eastern side of Loughborough and, in doing so, crossing above the Midland almost at a right angle. It has always tickled me that both railways were running between Sheffield and London, but found very different engineering solutions to the terrain of the Midland shires.
Where the GCR and the Midland met there was no junction – that would come much later.
Heading down from Nottinghamshire and crossing the border into Leicestershire, the GCR went over the Nottingham road (now the A60), then the Midland line, followed by a small bridge over a tiny access track called Railway Terrace. It then traversed a long embankment before vaulting the Grand Union Canal and arriving at Loughborough Central station. The penalty the GCR paid for being the last Victorian main line was usually having to go above, below or around everyone else.
The line’s death was protracted and painful. The small stations were closed in 1963 and the through route to London followed in 1966. A substantial stub remained between Nottingham and Rugby, serviced by several DMU workings each day, until in May 1969 when that too was shut down. It had been alive for only 70 years.
The idea of preserving as much of the surviving route as possible had already begun to ferment, only to falter, faced with financial reality. Instead, Loughborough became a base and initially trains ran only as far as Quorn & Woodhouse station, two miles to the south.
It is fair to say British Rail was hostile to the scheme, charging large amounts of rent every month just to keep the tracks in place.
The preservationists’ notion of heading north from Loughborough was enticing but out of reach. Besides,
BR was still using the line towards Nottingham to take freight to a Ministry of Defence depot at Ruddington and the gypsum works at East Leake.
Initially these trains travelled from Nottingham, heading south down the GCR. When a shopping centre was built over Nottingham Victoria station, that changed.
What followed was a devastating blow, but also an opportunity. The soil from the embankment immediately north of the canal bridge was removed, transported a few hundred yards and used to form an embankment for a new connecting chord between the Midland and the Central at Loughborough. Now, trains from the St Pancras line could access the former GCR at Loughborough and head north with freight.
However, a few years later the GCR bridge over the Midland was itself removed, to make way for pending electrification of the Midland Main Line. To add insult to injury, the line still hasn’t been electrified!
FIRST JIGSAW PIECE
And so time moved on. A gap had opened that seemed impossible to close. Decades passed and the heritage Great Central Railway established itself with extensions to Rothley and Leicester.
Double track and comprehensive signalling appeared, and a reputation grew for special events and galas where the action doesn’t stop.
Like every preservation scheme in the country, it has taken the investment of millions of pounds and absorbed even more hours, depending on tens of thousands of people through the years. That didn’t stop the question being asked, “When will you bridge the gap?”.
This intensified when, towards the end of the 1980s, with freight traffic to the gypsum plant seemingly finished and the MoD depot closed, preservationists were able to move in to the expansive Ruddington site. A thriving transport heritage centre, including a complementary bus collection and extensive miniature railway, now occupies the land left by the MoD. The spur line was rebuilt to reach the GCR main line and now heritage trains head south towards Loughborough.
It’s the same railway, but seemingly full of different character; long ‘racing’ straights, deep cuttings, viaducts and a climb in both directions to a short tunnel. For good measure, the GC Nottingham team has restored the freight flow to the gypsum plant too. The new chord line between Midland and Central is in regular use.
Once again, electrification proved the spur to action. With new plans announced to electrify the Midland in 2012, a ‘now or never’ moment materialised.
It felt that constructing a bridge over an electrified railway would be impossibly expensive, but there would be a real chance to make savings with joint site compounds and the track possessions that would be required. Network Rail agreed and has been never less than 100% committed to getting the bridge in place, even though everyone had to deal with moving goalposts when the electrification scheme was first paused and then cancelled. If it ever does resume, we can be reassured that at least the bridge is in place.
A SUM GREATER THAN ITS PARTS
In terms of missing links on the UK railway map, it was an absolute open goal; even more so for determined preservationists stubbornly putting back what they could against the odds. We genuinely believe there is more to it than that.
Main line stations, signalling and infrastructure, all at home together, all providing an insight into Britain’s railways and all under a heritage umbrella. ‘So what?’ you might say. ‘You already have that, minus 550 yards in the middle…’ But that is to miss the wider point: the GCR sum is most definitely greater than its parts.
When complete, the legacy for future generations will be an 18-mile main line formation in the heart of the country. It will link the outskirts of two major conurbations and connect the smaller communities between them with a green leisure corridor.
This is not a national network main line where steam and vintage diesels have to wait for access and squeeze into timetables among numerous more modern, much faster trains. The largest locomotives will be able to run here or make their home here.
It will have a central connection to the national network via the chord allowing charter trains to arrive and depart, and leading engineering facilities.
No matter how long you’ll be able to see steam specials hauling passengers around the country, the chances are you’ll never see a lengthy van or mineral wagon train with a ‘9F’ at its head, or witness a ‘Hall’ take a charge at the non-stop mail exchange out on Network Rail again. On the slimmest of chances that you do, it’s unlikely you’ll see two trains like that passing, while block bells rattle and levers crash in the distance.
This ultimate heritage main line can also continue to grow with more double track and restorations. Developments like the Mountsorrel branch line can continue to blossom. The museum village at Ruddington can expand.
You have to attract good people and finance with a mix of pragmatism and ambition to thrive. Our most successful steam railways have found that mix and we believe reunification is a similar scheme which secures a future. The huge potential from north to south can be best realised as a whole.
THE NEXT STAGE
With two pieces of the jigsaw in place, the donations have gathered pace, and the clamour to know ‘what next?’ has intensified.
We plan to tackle two sections at the same time. Once again, thinking north to south, both follow in immediate sequence from the new Midland Main Line bridge.
South of the main line the new GCR formation will run onto an elevated section which crosses a factory car park. This was originally a short embankment, but after closure it was occupied by a local company. When the new Midland bridge was built, this section was cleared and dropped in height to allow access for the heavy plant needed. The car park was restored and the new railway will go overhead, allowing some under cover parking provision. It’s a win-win situation.
After the car park, the railway then crosses Railway Terrace road. It was once a minor occupation bridge. Now it is the road to Charnwood’s refuse recycling centre, a busy 90º corner.
Big lorries head to and fro along with vans and families in cars. The new bridge has to meet two important criteria: it must have enough clearance to allow lorries to pass underneath and it must cross on such a skew to allow all drivers to have a perfect view of each other on the approach. The former measurement is actually greater than the deck to rail clearance of the new Midland Bridge to allow for future electrification. It all adds to the complex geometry of reunification.
Fortunately, we have two bridge decks to hand. These were recovered from the 2009-15 remodelling of Reading station and originally intended to be used end-to-end for the Midland bridge with a central pier. When the plans evolved to use one new span, these two single-track decks became available for use elsewhere.
We currently envisage they’ll fit here, one crossing the car park, the other Railway Terrace. There are still substantial abutments to build each side and in between, and all the associated piling that goes with that.
You have control of the project because, at the risk of being flippant, ‘no dough, no show’ TOM INGALL
While it would be exciting to push straight on building one stage at a time, there is definitely an economy of scale if we build these two sections at the same time. That means we need to save up.
We estimate these two bits that form the ‘Factory Flyover’ will cost £3 million. Actually, that’s about the same amount of money that has already been raised and spent delivering reunification infrastructure, so it does not faze us and, with continued support, is achievable.
What’s more, with the momentum of existing fundraising, we began this appeal with a small amount already raised towards the target – and that has increased to £170,000, even against the background of the pandemic. By the time you read this, it will be higher.
Let’s be frank: everything achieved so far has been down to you. You have control of the project because, at the risk of being flippant, ‘no dough, no show’. It is the collective investment by everybody which makes this happen. Every amount given takes us closer to the day trains run along the reunified railway.
If you’re already giving by standing order to the ‘Bridge to the Future’ for the Main Line bridge or ‘Crossing the Canal’ appeal, please continue because your gift is now going towards the ‘Factory Flyover’.
If you haven’t donated yet, please be assured this is a project that is happening.
FIRST TRAINS IN 2025?
Naturally, people ask us how long it will take. The honest answer is, if you are donating, you’ve just shortened the distance to the finish line. Do nothing and it slips back again.
There are so many ways you can help. Here’s the first one. Head to YouTube, search for ‘GCRofficial’, subscribe and watch the videos. It costs you nothing, but watching the films earns us a few pennies in advertising revenue which all goes to the reunification fund.
Here is some back-of-the-fag-packet maths.
If everyone subscribing to Steam Railway sets up a standing order for £12 a month, this phase of reunification would be paid for in a year. Twelve months later, the rest of it would be funded. With a tail wind, the new railway could be open in five years.
We believe it’s time to come together and create a national educational resource of value to the entire preservation industry.
Besides the Great Central Railway plc and the David Clarke Railway Trust, the Friends of the Great Central Main Line is fully behind this too, sponsoring publicity material so your donation goes to bricks and mortar, not on flyers. The East Midlands Railway Trust, landlord of the Great Central Railway (Nottingham), is also adding its support to the campaign.
Donating to any cause is always a personal choice; never more so than now when priorities have been rightly reshaped by external forces. We can only say thank you to each and every one of you giving. Even if you can’t afford to give, but wish us well, again you are part of the team.
While we had to cancel and postpone our extensive programme of talks and events to promote reunification this year, we are determined to remain on the front foot.
We will get back to building when we have the money. We’ll solve any problems that arise and complete the remaining infrastructure, including reinstating the embankment.
The old Great Central Railway adopted the motto ‘Forward’, and with your support we will, in that spirit, reunify. We will all share the excitement and continue the development of this extraordinary railway adventure which began more than half a century ago.