Bridge that Gap: Great Central Railway News

Both GCR and GCRN already cross SSSIs (Swithland reservoir and Loughborough meadow). The difference with Wilwell cutting is that the very reason it is a boggy wetland is that the track drains are blocked, so you’d have to destroy the SSSI to put the railway back in it.


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Hi Davo
I suspect that the Engine Shed will be the next major project as the appeal for that has already started and that will affect access to the gap site from the South.
However, they could restart work at the North end by filling in the gap between the MML bridge and existing embankment, then think about installing the point and trackwork to make the connection...but I don't know how much work needs doing on that road bridge by the Brush works entrance.

 

Find it hard to comprehend that something thus artificially created and only 50 years old is of SSSI unless its the process of environmental re integration that is the thing of interest, in which case recreating the same set of circumstances could surely be engineeered somewhere convenient and be offered up as a replacement...

 

Just about the whole of the UK natural landscape (probably > 99%) is artificially created; the only question is whether the roots lie thousands, hundreds or tens of years ago. Genuine wilderness, untouched by man, more or less doesn't exist in this country. So being man made is no reason why it shouldn't be an SSSI.

Tom

 

Quite right but I must quibble about "artificial". It has been traditional and widely continues to be so that artificial means "made or produced by human beings rather than occurring naturally". Seeing human activity as separate and apart from natural processes has led to the dire situation of the contemporary global environment. Humans are part of nature and a most important part.

 

Isn't the point that although the cutting is manmade, the environment that has been made an SSSI has been created because of the absence of human intervention?

More broadly, at a time when the GCR has yet to reconnect, and the GCRN have established and are building a large base at Ruddington, I am bemused at why there is so much emotional investment in trying to get a bit further up the line to a random bit of suburbia.

 

I'm not bemused at all.
1) The old Ruddington station site is just beyond the buffer stops which some people find frustrating
2) People who don't drive and/or feel things should be joined up see the tiny gap between the GCRN and the Nottingham Tram as somehow frustrating or wrong or offensive or illogical or ....

 

'feel things should be joined up see the tiny gap between the GCRN and the Nottingham Tram as somehow frustrating or wrong or offensive or illogical'
Yep number 2 is me all over, like it annoys the crap out of me that Bradford has two termini and not one central station because a)some wool dyeing magnate didnt want anyone tunneling near his water source in the 1860's and b) long after the wool dyeing has gone and the City centre had a yawning gap available there wasnt any money to invest in tieing the ends up creating a useful loop line in the Leeds/Bradford conurbation.. but there was £ 15 Billion to spend on crossrail. Northern Powerhouse my arse.

 

This SSSI area is not man made. Nature has taken over a derelict place. Most railways have the evidence of this is the weeds that grow in sidings and other infrequently used areas. The linear scrapyards of heritage railways are also evidence having overgrown areas and moss covered stock.

 

SSSI classifications are predicated on the variety and rarity of flora and fauna, more occasionally taking account of the ground itself (Dungeness being a case in point). Whether or not a site has been in industrial, agricultural or residential use only comes into the equation where considerations such as land price and scarcity (e.g.'the square mile') are adjudged of overriding consequence. Take that to mean what you will.

Southward progress on the Corris Railway has been complicated by the presence of slow worms ..... among other things! ..... but, far from being a 'negative', finding and implementing appropriate solutions has led to some very useful, mutually beneficial connections with other organisations which mightn't otherwise have happened.

 

The planning permission and subsequent sale of Ongar goods yard for housing was complicated by the presence of slow worms . Unfortunately it eventually went ahead regardless.

 

Meanwhile, back on the Great Central, it is pleasing to see that the car park at Rothley Station has been resurfaced with plastic trellis type matting and small stones filling the holes, to give an even, flat surface which should drain well. It certainly looks so much better than the moon crater effect previously! There is still the driveway and apron at the bottom to be tarmac covered I believe.

 

As a point of order you mean the goods yard. The Victorians were not big on station car parks.


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Nuthin 'was said about boxes...

 

Unfortunately I was unable to attend the AGM of the GCR and, after that, a "Friends" AGM on Saturday - could anybody who was there, give a brief outline of the points discussed?

 

Here is the nearly finished Rothley car park (or - former goods yard).

 

As a driver, that looks necessary. From a heritage angle, that looks horrible.

 

Never mind looking horrible, from a true heritage perspective, they should be using steamrollers not those ghastly looking modern things!

 

Never mind the car park , from heritage point of view there should not be any cars

 

I'd like a personal anti-gravity machine while you're at it, thanks.

Noel