GCR Swithland

Hi all, just been having a look at the progress thats been made recently and was just wondering if it is likely that Swithland signal box will be in use by the Autum gala? Also once thats been completed whats likely to be next on the cards?

 

I don't know when Swithland box will be commissioned (though I hope it'll be soon), but there was a tantalising hint in the introduction to the Winter Steam Gala programme about future developments being planned at Leicester North. Ideally this would be a second platform road as that should give the GCR the facility to increase the frequency of it's full line services during galas from a 50 minute interval to a 30 minute interval without impacting on the freight and local services that only run as far south as Rothley Brook.

 

Double track to Leicester North would be very expensive, so I doubt it is on the cards currently, but would be a very welcome development!

 

Swithland should be open before the October gala, we are currently learning route knowledge for it. Double track to Leicester is on the cards as well, but I myself don't expect it to be complete this side of 2020.

 

Good enough for me!

 

Many thanks for the replys, just out of interest what is that will make the doubling to Leicester so expensive? Is it the fact the current line will need to be altered to follow one side of the formation better, the re-modelling of Rothley Brook or something completely different?

 

Plus the track, the ballast, the signalling, the clearing of foliage - it all adds up Random_User! What sounds like a basic task can cost hundreds of thousands of pounds once material is bought and paid for - and contractors are brought in, if necessary.

 

absolute priority of all absolute priorities is TO RECONNECT WITh THE GCR(N)........now is a dead duck project? it would be terribly sad!
regards
noel

 

I appreciate it is far from a basic task, was just curious as to where the bulk of the expense came from. Thanks for clearing things up.

 

A priority for who? People who want to recreate the past? Its probably too late. It should never have been demolished in the first place but hindsight is a wonderful thing. The current economic situation in the UK may well continue to bounce along the bottom for at least another 18 months (according to a variety of on-line sources) and I think it may well kill off the project for good, unless public money is used in some way. As a taxpayer, I would prefer to have the money used in having my bins emptied, streets lit, hospital services provided, and subsidised alcohol (well perhaps not the last one) although, if I was the Boss of RBS, I would probably use a bit of that Bank's finances to put the link back in as I personally believe that a united GCR would help to seal its future as a really great heritage line rather than "just" a very good one. In reality, I think we have lost a decade's worth of time with this project if we are lucky.

 

Plain track is the easy part. Rothley will need its signalling altering, and Leicester North will need signalling and development of a more appropriate track layout if two platforms are indeed used. Leicester North may also require a vandal-proof signal box (it would be a pretty bad idea to use a wooden one).

 

To clarify my original post in this thread, I was merely stating my opinion that a second platform road would be an ideal development at Leicester North - not suggesting a full re-doubling from Rothley, though I am pleased to see Jamie C. Steel's comment that it is on the cards, even if still a way off.

Some clarification about the hint given in the gala programme was offered in the latest GCR weekly newsletter, distributed overnight. To quote: -

"Another great step forward is in the making. We are in discussions with Leicester City Council to take over the Greenacres site at Leicester North. This will open up the southern part of the railway and become a major attraction in the near future. The next Main Line will be able to give more detail but we consider this to be one of the groundbreaking opportunities that very seldom come our way."

Can anyone familiar with the local geography shed any light on what the "Greenacres site at Leicester North" actually is?

The full Newsletter can be accessed via Newsletters | Great Central Railway

 

The need for a vandal-proof signal box had occurred to me too.

Perhaps some form of 50s/60s style colour light and panel installation (without all those signal wires just tempting to be snipped) might form a way forward, whilst covering a neglected part of railway heritage (as far as I am aware only the Mid-Hants has something of that ilk installed, with the Embsay & Bolton Abbey planning something similar for the future).

 

https://secure.flickr.com/photos/nedtrifle/3057596284/ - Its sited on the sidings approach road, the description below the photo explains pretty whell

 

Thanks for that - though reading the background information about this £1.7 million abandoned white elephant, I wonder if the GCR is considering taking on something that could easily turn into a poisoned chalice...

 

thoughts: Do the GCR need another cafe? More offices/conference centre (given Lovatt House)? car parking space? (there's not much at Leicester North but there is on-street parking if you konw where you're going). The building's not very "heritage".

 

on 2nd thoughts the most "obvious" use of the building would be as a museum, plus small cafe cos people always need plying with tea and bacon butties. You can never have enough tea and bacon butties. The museum at Loughborough under the stairs is too small, and the space might be better used as offices. At the moment Leicester North being completely built from new is a bit bare, as regards things to do, so a museum would give people a reason for getting off and having a look around. But then you need to ensure security, both against (1) local vandals who want to burn the place down (2) assuming the local vandals don't burn it down, you need protection from the gypsies who will steal anything for scrap, and (3) assuming the local vandals don't burn it down, and the gypsies don't nick everything, you need protection from bastards who want to nick railway memorabilia and sell it to unsuspecting enthusiasts. Put a model railway in it and it can be a "community" centre. Not sure how big it is.

 

Just a thought but isn't the Mountsorrel branch going to add to the issues with capacity around Rothley?

 

Moves to and from the branch aren't signalled to passenger standards, so any such movements in the short term could only be on an occasional basis anyway.

 

Operating the branch as a passenger railway presents its own difficulties, not least because the main line is double track. At present there is a lack of runround facilities on the branch line and the only way to use the branch would be with something "double ended" like a DMU or push-pull train. It would be relatively straightforward to allow up trains (from Quorn) to enter the up loop, reverse down the line and then come back out again and continue in the up direction. However a down train (from Rothley) has either to run wrong line on the up line between Rothley and Swithland, or run in the correct direction on the down line, reverse back over the trailing crossover, reverse again into the up loop and down the line. It then needs to reverse on the branch as previously described, and either proceed back to Rothley in a shuttle manner as previously described for the up train, or use the crossover again to access the down line to return north. These are the physical movements that would need to be controlled appropriately. There is talk, i don't know how accurate, of a chord being put in to make a triangle to allow aggregates trains to access to go north. A new facing crossover would then be required to allow aggregates trains out of the branch onto the down line (or the existing crossover could be moved further north). Obviously the gap has to be bridged first to allow the whole operation to run. It is also possible that in such a scenario a run round loop would be constructed in the quarry itself. That would allow up trains to travel onto the branch, be ran round and then proceed from the branch in either an up or a down direction. Allowing down trains onto the branch directly is however more difficult because that would require a facing crossover which wouldn't normally be required by the aggregate trains (and hence the aggregates company won't pay for it). It seems to be a bit of an operational nightmare tbh, so I'm not sure that the operations guys will be too keen to use it.