Bridge that Gap: Great Central Railway News

Link?

 

http://www.gcrailway.co.uk/donations/donateprocess.php

Dave B

 

The match funding in March was apparently oversubscribed, so the current figure subscribed for the canal bridge has now gone up to £110,000, an increase of about £65K over the month.

 

Still a good way to go to reach the target to allow work to start later this year!

 

Think you will find that the target date is now Autumn 2019, as mentioned in the report in the last edition of Main Line.

 

Does that mean work on the canal bridge won’t start this autumn?

 

That's what it said. Gives more time to raise the neccesary money and presumably give more notice to things like restrictions to navigation on the canal whilst the work is in progress. They are only going to go ahead once the money is "in hand", which seems a very sensible thing to do. It will also give them a chance to tap other funding sources as well, I suppose.

They have got a quarter of the required amount in 4 months, so, if they can keep the momentum up, another 12 months should allow them to get all the money in. The problem is that lots of railways/schemes are all after big amounts of money at the moment.....

 

If the work the canal bridge is delayed by 12 months, I hope physical work can proceed on some other aspect of the overall job rather than it go 'off the boil' and recede in people's minds.

 

The current appeal appears to cover the works to the bridge and the Planning Application for the remainder of the work, so things will be presumably be progressing, though not in the public view.

 

Well, hopefully, in line with the 'only start what you have the money for', the planning stuff will start right away (they must have enough for that now), as the paperwork can often take a very long time...

Noel

 

Interestingly, the latest Steam Railway - which just arrived here - says the fund stands at £130K at the moment and quotes the GCR MD as saying "This enables us to make a start in the Autumn, providing the site has been cleared in readiness and subject to planning permission".
So it might start happening this year after all. SR has an appeal leaflet in it for the Canal Bridge as well (or the postal ones do if not the newsagents ones).

 

That quote sounds a bit muddled up to me, as the whole point of doing the canal bridge next is that it doesn’t need planning permission.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

The new copy of Main Line arrived here a while ago and I noticed a couple of things whilst having a quick scan of it....

a) Work may well be starting on the Canal Bridge this year, as money continues to come in at a reasonable rate. However, it will now be lifted out into the area at the back of the shed rather than being done in situ. The area at the back of the shed still needs clearance work done to make room for the bridge before this can happen. That would at least get over the time restraints imposed by canal traffic which would need the work to be done "off season".

b) After the detailed article in the last copy of the magazine on how the line is going to pass the current shed and the refurbishment of that property, they are now looking at a brand new shed complex on the west side of the tracks, which would free up the original formation north to the canal bridge, subject to planning permission being granted!

 

Makes sense, isn't the road access on that side also

 

It seems so, looking at google maps. Hope that negotiations between themselves and Jackson Coachworks is going well in that case as it would make everything a tad easier!

 

Great news to hear if that comes to pass, the issue of what to do with the GCR's engine shed was always a bit of a head scratcher that one, due to the premium of available space in the area.

If you got any specifics/details on this development I'm sure we'd love to hear it.

One question I've got is will this new shed complex in fact be the rebuilt shed they had rescued some years ago for this eventual purpose, the Workington Steam Sheds?
Hope so, as I would hate to see all that foresight and work in dismantling that building go to waste.

 

I think this has been gone over earlier in this thread or in another? But where it was planned to site the Workington Shed it has something to do with the ground not being firm enough?

 

It says that the says the the replacement shed would be a brand new, steel framed, building.

 

Nice greenfield site on the east just north of the canal...

 

Only problem is that it is an old rubbish dump! Already looked at but would need very expensive remediation and extensive foundation works.