Ambitious proposal is on track

[John Hunt]

http://www.inloughborough.com/news/0...s%20on%20Track

Background info here -
http://www.gcrailway.co.uk/About_Us/News.aspx?ID=71

[Pesmo]

Providing it is feasible, I would still be very surprised if they raise the money easily. It might be easier to fund if they were to extend further to the north into Nottingham city proper and adopt a normal passenger service with DMU's/Light rail/Metro's during the week making them a genuine Leicester-Loughborough-Nottingham service. It will be mighty impressive if they pull it off.

[Bubblewrap]

Originally Posted by Pesmo

Providing it is feasible, I would still be very surprised if they raise the money easily. It might be easier to fund if they were to extend further to the north into Nottingham city proper and adopt a normal passenger service with DMU's/Light rail/Metro's during the week making them a genuine Leicester-Loughborough-Nottingham service. It will be mighty impressive if they pull it off.

Even more difficult track bed "landscaped" north of Ruddington & a major bridge demolished at Wilford.
The bridge over the River Trent is no longer there & most of the track bed to where the line crossed the Midland station is built on to be realistic Ruddington is as far as the GCR could go northwards.

PS some prep work has started & we are only talking of about 500metres of work to link the two sections up!

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Originally Posted by Pesmo

Providing it is feasible, I would still be very surprised if they raise the money easily. It might be easier to fund if they were to extend further to the north into Nottingham city proper and adopt a normal passenger service with DMU's/Light rail/Metro's during the week making them a genuine Leicester-Loughborough-Nottingham service. It will be mighty impressive if they pull it off.

Not much chance of going south either all the viaducts into Leicester demolished the bridge over the river Soar in Leicester was due for or has been demolished.
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?im...%26start%3D100
Leicester(North) GCR is in Birstall about 3 miles from the city centre.

[Bubblewrap]

If you go to Google maps and look at the aerial photos & trace the route from Leicester to Nottingham you will see what I mean.

[Bubblewrap]

Although the embankment is missing just north of the engine shed at Loughborough this could be easily replaced.
The two main problems are the state of the bridge over the Grand Union Canal which is still in place but in a poor state of repair & the bridge over the Midland Main Line ,the original bridge was taken out in the early 70s.
The other good point about the "venture" is that the GCR will have direct access to the railway system as now all locos & rolling stock have to come by road to Quorn.

[Bubblewrap]

From the pages of this weeks Loughborough Echo

GCR's £35m scheme closer to reality

Apr 9 2009 By Caroline Ferrier

WORK has begun in earnest in the bid to build a £35m heritage and passenger railway to join up two lengths of line between Charnwood and Nottingham.

It has been announced this week that leading transport consultancy Atkins is to carry out the £350,000 feasibility study into restoring 17 miles of track, north towards Nottingham and south towards Leicester.

The Great Central Railway’s Bridging the Gap Project includes building a bridge to completely re-lay a missing section of 500 metres of line near Loughborough Railway Station.

The study is aimed partly at proving the commercial case for the complex project.

It was confirmed at the launch event this week that, not only are Network Rail and Lafarge Aggregates interested in backing the project, as reported in the Echo in February, but British Gypsum too are on board.

The British Gypsum link is crucial to the green transport aspect of the project which would aim to take heavy goods lorries off the area’s roads.

Richard Tilden Smith GCR plc director said: “Rail enthusiasts have dreamed about this for a long time but there has been a transformation with the opportunity to build a commercial and business case. That is the only way this will succeed.”

Tom Ingall GCR press officer said that to build this from scratch would cost £220m but it was believed it could be bought in for £35m because GCR already own much of the infrastructure.

Network Rail were interested because of plans it already had to electrify the Midland Mainline between Nottingham and Leicester and the new GCR link, which would carry passeners as well as tourists and freight, could enhance their plans.

The complex project involves not one but seven key projects including the moving the GCR engine sheds to create a railway engineering centre of excellence.

It would have heritage, education, business and engineering capacity along the lines of the National Railway Museum at York.

Atkins’ study is funded by money from the East Midlands Development Agency and Charnwood Borough Council as well as GCR money.

It will be complete in October and will involve a consultation period when there will be the chance for local residents and visitors to contribute.

[Pesmo]

So are they now saying that they want to extend North and South as well as bridge the gap or is the £35m just to bridge the gap ? The newspaper piece doesn't really make it clear.

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NO the GCR is in two sections one section runs from the junction with the Midland main line to Ruddington the other section runs from the loco shed at Loughborough (shed spans where track would be) to Leicester North(just south of the site of the old Belgrave & Birstall station.
The project merely wishes to replace the 500 metres track missing between the two sections.
I think the article means that the track will be returned to main line standards.

I forgot to mention the section of track in question is only 500 metres from my house & when the "new" embankment is in place it will be visible from my front door.
The Midland main line runs 50 metres to the rear of my house & I can watch the trains from the back bedroom window.

[Pesmo]

I think we would all like a view like that

I have only visited the GCR once and was very impressed, particularly with Loughborough station which was super.