East Midlands Railway Trust/GCR (Nottingham)

The south chord is a lovely idea, which was being talked about when I joined the GCRN 34 years ago, and will most probably be talked about for the next 34 years as well. You might like to go and read the L&B thread about how to deal (or not) with neighbouring landowners, but at the end of the day if they can't be persuaded to sell, how long do you wait before trying something else? You're certainly not going to get a compulsory purchase order for a bit of track which has been managed without for the last 3 decades.

What is certainly not attractive for the long term is for a train having to stop and run round / swap engines in the middle of nowhere, adding 10 or 15 minutes to the timetable while the poor punters look at some scrubland and trees, or the back of peoples gardens, or whatever it is these days.

So with this line of thought, an interchange / loco swap / run round station is more attractive; even if it is hemmed in by houses and has no parking. It's also arguably more expensive, and way down the priority order, but it is at least achievable without fictitious land purchases.

Could it be done without going north of the bridge? Not easily, and it would then become a new build rather than a recreation, so less likely to attract grant funding and donations I would think.

Could trains go beyond the bridge up to the tram? It was looked at a few years ago and the answer was yes - well, maybe not a direct interchange, but a terminus in a field with a short walk to the tram was deemed feasible anyway. Whether there is any money in this I don't know, I think it would depend on whether (a) people might arrive from Nottingham by tram and ride on the GCR and (b) people might find a park & ride steam train changing to a tram for the city centre attractive. Both sound nice, but would they attract people in numbers sufficient to justify it? I don't know. But when it was looked at before, the cost and benefits clearly didn't stack up, as the idea didn't progress. But things can change.

Scaling back from all these what-if scenarios, the focus has to be on getting a regular timetable up and running again, trains back to Rushcliffe Halt, and signalling at Hotchley Hill so that when the 'gap' is done there is greater capacity for trains north of Loughborough. Everything else really is next year's problem. It's good to have a vision though.

 

This is where the tram line curves away from the GCR trackbed, the former main line going off to the right of where the tram is.....



From where I took this photo, a footpath leads up to an occupation bridge over a cutting where the trackbed looking south looks like this.......(seen in 2022)



It all looks rather damp down there, though compared with a visit to the same spot 3 years earlier, the foliage does appear to have been cut back a bit by persons unknown, though it was later in the year than the previous shot.....

 

The south chord will cost A LOT.

There are two land owners, one is pretty open to discuss options, the second sees it as his, up to seven figure, retirement opportunity. I suspect the only real option is to do some deal with a developer to exchange the south chord land/construction with the land where the head shunt and old station is...........that would need to be added to the local plan as a strategic option I expect (and many would object to the station and head shunt land being given up......even if it is the only sensible option)

As for extending to the tram, the area in the cutting (Wilwell Farm Nature Reserve) is designated as an 'area of special scientific interest' due to the find of a butterfly there, so that would need bypassing.......or a minor miracle!

 

Mark,
Rather than extending the tram (seems unlikely) I think the proposal studied was for the GCR to extend beyond the original station, then branch off to one side with a terminus in the field and using that footpath to connect to the tram stop. I believe the idea was to avoid Wilwell Farm Nature Reserve entirely. (I have a copy of the report somewhere, though I'm not 100% sure where it is.)

Personally I still think it's a shame the GCRN didn't push harder for the route north back in the early 90s when they could still have got as far as the Trent. Yes they may never have got there but at least the tram, which came later, would have been forced to upgrade/provide bridges and a formation suitable for shared use. Which really would have been nice, in the best spirit of WIBN. Still, we are where we are.

 

Remember Ruddington station isn't covered by the LWO as this stops 152 metres north of the northern parapet of the footbridge over the railway known as 50 Steps Bridge https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1995/2143/made so a new TWO will have to be applied for this to happen.

 

You mean T&WAO. True. But neither is the current focus of expansion between the canal bridge and the MML bridge. It's only paperwork, and I would say less of an issue than getting local stakeholders onside and getting the proposal right.

 

Loco related, but the fact its being restored at Ruddington puts it in this thread!
https://www.youtube.com/live/vSbbT90ixnU

 

There was a light engine movement over the full length of the line yesterday according to a mention on the "Cutting Edge" FB page....
https://www.facebook.com/p/GCRN-Cutting-edge-61555987697996/

 

I have seen a picture of D 8154 on the new A60 bridge....Why do "they" not shout about this great news???
Real progress on the slow but steady return of the GCR(N) to full line operation.

 

It seems to me that a lot of the publicity for the GCRN has been 'transferred' to the GCR's publicity department / machine - possibly because it's more established and has more by way of resources, and possibly because it's an easier way to help integrate the two railways ahead of the physical joining of rails between the two lines

 

Thanks for posting that video update brmp....and well done the GCR publicity dept! Credit where it is due.
Trains to Rushcliffe next month!

 

Photos on FB yesterday showing the unloading of a smart looking class 107 DMU (52005/52031) which is apparently to be used on GCRN's santa trains.

 

I'm looking forward to a trip on this in 2025, if it continues to operate from Ruddington, all being well on some ordinary (i.e. not pre book Santa) duties. It's been some years since I visited the GCRN so a trip is well overdue. It is good to see a return of a running DMU presence on the line.

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It's certainly a promising turn of events. The team restoring the 108 & 116 DMUs are doing a great job, but both look to be some years away from completion. And the pacer... well. Santa obviously doesn't like having the wind blowing up his trouser legs from the bus doors, and who could blame him? (There was a rumour a while back it had been sold... I have no information one way or the other.)

 

Excellent to see a video of the railcar set running all the way down to Loughborough and over the new A60 bridge. This was a test train prior to the Santa jingle bells runs - which will go to Rushcliffe and return to Ruddington.