Bridge that Gap: Great Central Railway News

I put £100 toward the reunification project i hope this helps alot to the G.C.R. society in the crisis were in due to covid 19 and helps your ultimate goal of uniting the G.C.R. Nottingham section and the Leicester sections i wish to be alive to see this dream come true.
Davo 56F

 

Well done Davo.....and I hope we are all alive to see a train go over the "Gap". It is indeed an unprecedented time but I am confident that we will get through it and will appreciate what we have, all the more, in the future.

 

There is a revamped "Shed Appeal" page on the GCR website. There are links to two new information pages which show "Leicester North" as "Birstall and Leicester" and the new shed as spreading across 4 tracks with the Eastern track clear as a route to the North, through the shed.......How accurate this will be I'm not sure.

 

Hopefully totally inaccurate and the figment of somebodies bad dream

 

Not quite sure what they are trying to say with that diagram....
http://www.gcrailway.co.uk/wp-conte...at-Central-Railway-Locomotive-Shed-Appeal.pdf
It appears that the two tracks to the bridge pass right through the shed.

Perhaps someone is an Alma Cogan fan?

 

It's quite possible in principle. Bakerloo Line trains full of passengers run through one of the sheds at Queens Park. Presumably the idea was to provide two additional stabling roads under cover without needing extra space. Whether it would make any sense at Loughborough I have no idea.

 

Would you really want a steam engine working hard going through a shed? The amount of smoke/cinders/etc would do bad things to any paintwork stored in there

 

It has a vistors gallery to see work in progress, was good to visit the Mid Hants railway where they have something similar and makes a visit more interesting allowing H and S especially when with children.
On the wiki page another proposal was to have the loco shed on a spur after the river bridge, which operational would be better, But not so convenient for visitors.
Seems if the shed is finished before the track extension, there will not be through trains, but might mean the shed will have to move again when the track extension opens as it will be difficult to work on trains safely with through trains?.

 

Indeed they do, but all that Queens Park North Shed is used for is stabling some trains overnight (last one in, first one out). The middle two roads are only used for stabling too - during the day they are used for service reversal.
Quite different from putting a running line through the middle of an area likely to be full of things in bits and being worked on!

What's really frustrating is that by publishing sketches which are clearly unworkable, all that happens is that potential supporters get alienated. I can only think of one good reason to produce the sketch which has been published, and that is to demonstrate why the shed needs to move.

 

Having seen the brochure, I remain to be convinced the Railway actually knows what it is raising funds for, by which I mean, where it will go, what it will look like and how it will fit in with the line north. It's not like, say, the bridge to the future or the canal bridge restoration, both of which the Railway and donors had a pretty clear idea of what the finished project would look like. Beyond the concept of 'a new shed' I'm struggling to get a handle on what I'd be contributing toward, and for that reason for this project my wallet is staying firmly shut for the present.

 

The last three posts all make very good points and I think the truth is probably a combination of all three!
There needs to be a new shed, it needs to be in a slightly different position, there needs to be two tracks going North alongside the shed (although going down to one on the new embankment), there will be educational viewing facilities within the shed. The GCR want to show some progress. There are several stakeholders/interested partners/neighbours.
Consultation/negotiation virtually impossible at present........Frustration all round.

 

Updated page on website....
http://www.gcrailway.co.uk/unify/
Fund now up to £150K, which isn't too bad given the fact that most other railways have major survival appeals going at the moment.

 

Ive put £300 in since lockdown im up for this project getting finished by 2025 if there were other ways i could help in the civil engineering part of this scheme but im not qualified in civil engineering and where to get the materials 4 the G.C.R. to reunite but i do show attention to detail of how the gradual construction of the gap will bebut not qualified to operate plant machinery but feel sorry 4 the beeching cuts G.C.R. Endured 14 years before i were born and would like to see some of the london extension reinstate
Davo 56.

 

Well done Davo on contributing, so am I.
I am older than you and can remember the GC going from Leicester to London. Now I will be happy to go from Leicester (Birstal) to Ruddington, hopefully before too long! 2023 would be good as it will be 50 years since the GCR restarted in preservation times - but I suspect Covid will have delayed things now....

 

And uncertainty to how and when any social group gatherings can resume if and when lockdown is lifted and going to maybe put pressure on the worlds economys globally (pheraps another global recession depending how long we have to adapt to this new norm)
Davo 56F

 

As I was able to go out and exercise I happened to have my camera with me....

Just awaiting removal of lifting girders then installation of the repaired lattice work

 

Your image has not come through Phil

Keith

 

Hi Ghost
Strange it shows on my computer but I will try again in this post....

 

@Flying Phil That's working now. I think your original pic was linked from another forum which is presumably behind a password, which is probably why it didn't show.
Thanks for posting it again!

Keith

 

I just happened to be passing through Loughborough Midland on Friday, and was taken aback just how massive the supporting superstructure for the new bridge was it was kind of surreal to see a large bridge straddling the midland mainline, then nothing in the way of earthworks either side.