Bridge that Gap: Great Central Railway News

It also appears to show some sort of dinosaur...?

 

An (LNER ?) green one at that..............!

There is also a Z Gauge version of of the Bridge Project which was on a stand at the Mountsorrel model rail show over the weekend.

 

Ahhhh ."....Beware when thee go North....Here be Dragons ohh arr!"

 

I rarely comment on things on here but what has become of the ex Workington shed that the great Central acquired and I'm sure donations where made to assist.with its relocation

 

The problem was, as I understand it, that the shed was in far worse condition than thought and it was not taken down in a very sympathetic manner ( probably an understatement) and was delivered in tipper lorries. As can be expected not a lot can be reused.

 

Well managed then!

 

Had the GCR themselves had the opportunity to take it apart properly and dismantle it, I’m sure it would have been viable. But what seems to have happened was that the demolition contractor was asked to chuck the scrap on a lorry to clear the site quickly, so what arrived at the GCR was mostly unusable.

You also have to remember that this was a shed 10 roads wide x 2 locos long, even considering the possibility of rebuilding it 5 roads wide x 4 locos long, there is no remotely suitable site on the GCR. Once the tip site was given up as a bad job (too unstable i.e. expensive to build on) it was never going to happen.

The biggest mistake on the GCR’s part was making grand claims that they were going to rebuild the shed in the first place. Had they assessed what arrived before announcing anything, they could have diverted the several lorry loads of scrap straight to the scrapyard or landfill and none of us would ever have been any the wiser.


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"....The biggest mistake on the GCR’s part was making grand claims...." Which is possibly why, now, they only seem to announce developments virtually as they happen...or slightly after!

 

Visited on Sunday for the Easter Gala & Quorn festival, some good cider in the beer tent at Quorn, two steam services and one DMU in service, a brilliant day out.

Anyhow, the on-topic part is that there was a collection for the canal bridge and the (transparent plastic) collection bag seemed to be fairly well filled with mostly larger notes, good to see. I wonder how much was raised over the bank holiday?

One thing however, it would be a good thing to have a portable card reader for such collections (I suppose the collector might have had one concealed though, I didn't ask because I had cash ready).

 

Glad that you enjoyed the GCR Mike and it is a good point about the portable card reader.
The latest news about the Canal bridge is that the repairs are going well but the North end will need to be jacked up to repair the section that rests on the abutment. This will probably have to wait until Autumn time as the canal needs to be kept open during the Summer.

Following the test drilling on the Leicester North site, the Museum project "plan B" is progressing with detailed plans having been costed and coming within the new budget. Hopefully, the plans will be made public in the next couple of months.
The "Engine Shed" appeal has raised over £10,000 in the first fourteen days!

 

Bridge work and Sheckels update...........
http://www.gcrailway.co.uk/2019/04/crossing-the-canal-appeal-reaches-376000/

 

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the final service running on the GCR between Rugby and Nottingham. It was good that the current GCR had a suitable service with two DMUs.

 

It is the "Goods Galore Gala" next weekend...... with 6 different freight trains in operation! There are 7 steam engines, including 2 8F locomotives being used. Two diesels and the Diesel Brake Tender will add to the variety. Obviously it will be an intensive timetable.

 

Dammit, I'm away in Devon next weekend!

 

Ruddington vandalised again, will the bridged gap allow stock to be kept away from the Notts youths ?

 

Doubt it, the southern bit of the GCR is pretty much full up with stock.

 

True at the moment, but there will be an extra 12 coach space in the new carriage shed extension at Swithland (and hopefully some more space at Leicester North with "Plan B"...). However I am sure they will be keeping the GCR(N) stock where it is and try to get more shed space built at Ruddington.

 

The canal bridge has had quite a lot of work done and the top of the three steel girders has been shot blasted and coated in a heavy duty grey plastic/paint. There are still some steel repairs to do on the lower vertical plates and the brickwork will need extensive attention.

 

Nice work, Think the attention may have come too late for the platework bottom left though

 

I'm guessing this will just be a 'first pass' to remove all the rust and crud. Thin areas of platework will now be cut out and new pieces welded in. In the meantime the paint stops further corrosion.