East Midlands Railway Trust/GCR (Nottingham)

Something else to read.....

http://ruddington.info/forward-fund-launch-jul2021/

At least there now seem to be some rather significant attempts to raise the profile of the place - though we still await an announcement of the likely cost of the A60 bridge repairs ......
Hopefully the new trustees will get things moving, as they appear to have made a good start.

 

Indeed it is very good news that the "Northern" operation is being revitalised.
I seem to remember that the cost of replacing the Quorn bridge (#341) was around £350,000 so, I suspect, the A60 bridge would be around £550,000? It is longer, but a similar construction and the access is probably slightly easier - they may use the MML bridge works compound for bridge assembly?

 

As it falls as part of the "Bridging the Gap" scheme, the logical thing is for EMRT to pay for half and GCR for the other half ! It needs to be done, so bringing the planned GCR phase forward would be the logical thing to do in this case.
The must be some external funding available for this as it involves a major trunk road as well.

 

Thanks for that clarification, yea, quite understand the need for an increase then. The highways dept should be keen on that as well, every cm is a bonus in those situations.

 

The GWSR had persistent issues with vehicles hitting the bridge at Broadway, so they finally gave in and constructed a very sturdy protective beam. Any motorist who doesn't pay attention, they suffer all the consequences. (As Mr. Prosser said, "Have you any idea how much damage that bulldozer would suffer if I just let it roll straight over you? .. None at all".) I'm surprised if that's not the concept here, too.

Noel

 

Certainly, looking at the diagram in the new brochure, there seems to be very sturdy concrete beams - described as Collision Protection beams, either side of the two steel (?) decks which have a concrete base beneath the ballast.

 

Yes Phil - a big lump of concrete... I thought that an initial survey by GCR(N) showed a very deep layer of ballast - thoughts were to lift the Bridge about 40 cm in order to improve the clearance without impacting the gradient on the cord. Looking at the drawing on the leaflet it seems to propose to have the beam structure flush with the underside of the deck as opposed from the current bridge having the deck on top of the beams. It would be useful to see a better drawing, but I attach a grab shot of the leaflet.



The drawing indicates the underside of the new deck to be 4.3467M - with the underside of the collision beams same height as existing beams at 20 lower - there is plenty of scope to lift the deck and beams? The drawing indicates that the Abutment is to be lowered!
DfT recommendation for heights of bridges over roadways is 5.03M - 0.73M higher than existing

 

I'm just pleased to see that things look they're starting to move in the right direction. There's a long road ahead of course (I really can't imagine that the A60 bridge will be fixed in the immediate future, unless of course there are other wheels in motion), but hopefully in a few years time we'll be able to look back on the current issues and regard them as in the past.

 

If you were to be looking at cost savings - with the design (as seen above) you only need to install the east deck provided that the remainder of the infrastructure was put in place.
The west deck could be installed at any future date.... More costly in the long run, but saving pennies is the current thought?

 

Hi Lga
I would be Very surprised if they did only install one deck now and another later. It would end up costing more and would require an additional road closure etc. Far better to get it done completely now.

 

The underside of the new deck is 43.467 OD, unless we know what the road level is there is no way of knowing what clearance is being proposed.
But as there is already approx 300mm of excess ballast depth on the existing bridge, in theory the existing span could be jacked up 300mm combined with thin deck construction of a new bridge the required clearance looks to easily achievable. If the proposal does that, the highways dept will be highly delighted.

Further on in the leaflet is new plans for the station at Ruddington, which appears to tick a huge number of boxes.

 

Hi J Rob't
I think we could all be surprised about how quickly a new A60 bridge could happen....... According to Main Line issue 186 P59 .......the Quorn bridge was 13 weeks from tender submission to installation!

 

Oh, I don't mean in terms of delivery time between tender or ordering and installation, I mean more in terms of how long it might take to get the money together to get th job started.

Considering how once replaced the A60 bridge will enable the gypsum traffic to recommence, and thereby give something of an income stream, I suppose it is possible that EMRT might be able to secure a bank loan to expediate the work, if they want to go down that route. Alternatively they're relying on their own funds and donations and from what has been written previously in Mainline and Driving Wheels the impression I get is that there is no money, certainly not enough to see the job done anyway.

The Quorn bridge on the other hand, whilst I'm not naive enough to think for an instant that the GCR had the funds idly sitting around to completely pay for the works, I'd be very surprised indeed if they were in the same position as the EMRT appear to be now.

 

Hi J Rob't
If you look up the Company accounts for the EMRT, they would appear to have a significant amount of cash.......both in restricted and unrestricted funds. I was very surprised.....

 

Those accounts made interesting reading. If they appear to have that amount of money sitting about, why hasn't some of it been spent in the past on site improvements at Ruddington, or rather, finishing jobs that were started umpteen years ago (ie that carriage shed)...?

 

It is also interesting to go back through the accounts and see how the EMRT has evolved from GCR(N)ltd to Nottingham Heritage Centre Ltd and finally EMRT. Various events have been very protracted - merging with LNERGCHT took about five years!
Re the carriage shed I think it is lack of (qualified) manpower from the, what has been a very small, volunteer base at Ruddington.
I see the 125 group are also getting more involved in the site and its management, which is good.
However, there does seem to be a new sense of purpose up in the North and all involved are to be congratulated.

 

I had a look at the Company records of GCR(N) while I was at it and there seems to have been quite a change of Directors recently. One posting on the GCR(N) FB page - which won't do much if I try and view it as a non-FB member - suggested problems and "Internal Politics" within the operation - perhaps that has been resolved now as well. All the special events at Ruddington are now listed on the EMRT page, which could be significant...
I dont subscribe to the "lack of volunteers" for building work as if you really want something done, you get it carried out by employing professionals, or you use the limited labour to get some of it done and use the professionals to finish it off, paricularly if the money is sitting in a bank account doing very little. That seems to be what happens elsewhere in the preservation field!

 

I agree with you Johann that it would seem sensible to get a professional in, if there is the money to do it, in the bank. However, it is quite telling that there doesn't seem to be anyone "on the ground" at Ruddington able to give us updates or correct impressions. Many other heritages sites have regular posters on NP - whose input we all value, but Ruddington is very quiet, I think the active members are few in number and too busy just trying to get it back working and keep it operating.

 

The latest 125 Group newsletter appeared today and there is mention in there of GCR(N) Director changes and goings on, which, at the time the mag was going to press meant they were putting any plans for their Depot at Ruddington on hold until the situation became clearer.
Presumably the announcement at the end of last week by EMRT about the 2 power cars and the Mainenance building indicates that seems to have been resolved. No confirmation of all that on any of the 125 Group publicity outlets so far though...

 

This appeared on the EMRT Twitter page this morning... (which has a starting image that is nothing to do with what follows!)



Don't know how the money is coming in so far for their appeal, but the figure on the online donations page makes the WSR fundraising appeal look like an outstanding success......though that figure has gone up by at least 50% in the last couple of days. The latest Steam Railway has a note that the EMRT "Looking Forward" will feature in their next edition, though, they describe it, confusingly, as GCR (Nottingham) "Looking Forward"...