79-650: The Loughborough Gap is a 500-metre-long (0.3-mile) missing section of the Great Central Main Line to the north-east of Loughborough , England. The gap was created by the removal of embankments and bridges during the 1980s and the restoration project has been branded Bridge to the Future and Bridging the Gap . From south-to-north the route crosses the Grand Union Canal , Railway Terrace road,
158-522: A Factory car park, four-track Midland Main Line at Loughborough railway station and the A60 road . The Hermitage Brook watercourse runs parallel. During the 2010s work began to restore the link in order to join the northern and southern sections of two heritage railways back together giving a total Great Central Railway (heritage railway) line length of 18 miles (29 km). As of 2016, planning permission
237-399: A book and gift shop, a museum, and an emporium/shop. All stations on the preserved Great Central Railway are set in a specific era; at Loughborough this era is the 1950s. Many artefacts around the station aid in this atmosphere, including original and recreated British Railways posters, British Railways totem poles, a 1950s TV showing 1950s transportation films in the general waiting room, and
316-660: A bridge, and NET uses the same alignment to provide a tram stop at the station before transitioning back to the city streets. North of here the GCML route is blocked by the Victoria shopping centre , built on the site of the GCR's Nottingham station. Sections of the GCML around Rotherham are open for passenger and freight traffic, indeed a new station was built there in the 1980s using the Great Central lines which were closer to
395-772: A continuation of the new main line to London, with the entire route from Sheffield Victoria to London Marylebone (via the original MS&LR main line, the Derbyshire Lines and the London Extension) being considered as the Great Central Main Line. In the 1890s the MS&;LR set about building its own line, having received parliamentary approval on 28 March 1893, for the London extension. The bill nearly failed due to opposition from cricketers at
474-627: A display of 1950s platform trolleys and bicycles. The station also plays host to the command centre of the heritage railway operations, from which the Duty Traffic Manager organizes all movements which take place on the railway from the Station Master's Office. The station has appeared in many film and television programmes, chosen for its retro aesthetic, such as Enigma , Shadowlands and Cemetery Junction . The station and Great Central Railway line were also featured in
553-501: A loop line passing through Chesterfield . The primary purpose of the Derbyshire Lines was to give the MS&LR access to the collieries of Nottinghamshire, but also served as the first phase in the company's plan to construct an independent route to London. At Annesley the line from Woodhouse ran into the northern end of the marshalling yard built and operated by the Great Northern Railway (GNR) since 1882. This yard
632-624: A minimum of stops and connections: thus much of its route ran through sparsely populated countryside. The new construction started at Annesley north of Nottingham , running for 92 miles (148 km) in a relatively direct southward route ending at Quainton Road north of Aylesbury. The line left the crowded corridor through Nottingham (and Nottingham Victoria ), which was also used by the Great Northern Railway (GNR), then struck off to its new railway station at Leicester Central , passing Loughborough en route , where it crossed
711-646: A new alignment towards Birmingham. Loughborough Central railway station Loughborough Central Station is a railway station on the Great Central Railway and the Great Central Railway (preserved) serving Loughborough . The station was opened by the Great Central Railway on 15 March 1899, built to the standard GCR arrangement of having an island platform set between the two main running lines. The platforms are 400 feet (120 m) long, capable of accommodating consists of up to 6 coaches and/or mail vans. The station buildings are unique on
790-610: A skeleton shuttle service operated. This last stretch was closed to passenger services in May 1969. Goods trains continued to run on the London Extension between Nottingham and East Leake until 1973, and continue to run between Loughborough and East Leake to this day. There is a north branch from the Midland Main Line onto the Great Central tracks at Loughborough. The closure of the GCR was the largest single closure of
869-531: Is 'under review'; the Transport and Works Order states that no provision is to be made for a Milton Keynes Central–Marylebone service. Currently, this stretch of route is used for freight consisting of binliner (containerised domestic waste) and spoil trains going to the Calvert Waste Facility ( landfill ) site at Calvert just south of Calvert station . Four container trains each day use
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#1732776507887948-603: Is possible to go inside and see "most" of the steam locomotives in various stages of completion. Only the third road is inaccessible to the general public. The current Loughborough Gap project will result in the shed being demolished, due to its position intercepting the line to Ruddington. The replacement is a 10-road from Workington in Cumbria , which will be rebuilt brick-by-brick into an 8-road shed, which could have enough storage for 16 large tender engines. The brownfield site on which it will eventually be built, will include
1027-593: The British Railways era. In the 1923 Grouping the Great Central Railway was merged into the London and North Eastern Railway , which in 1948 was nationalised along with the rest of Britain's railway network. The Great Central thrived in the early years of nationalisation. However, from the late 1950s onwards the freight traffic upon which the line relied started to decline, and the GCR route
1106-656: The Chiltern Main Line ) using the line between Neasden South Junction and Northolt Junction which was built, maintained and run by the GCR. A short extension of Chiltern passenger services to a new Aylesbury Vale Parkway station on the Aylesbury-Bicester main road opened on 14 December 2008. There are also heritage diesel shuttle services on the May Bank Holiday and August Bank Holiday weekends between Aylesbury and Quainton Road stations,
1185-538: The LNER began running special fast coal trains between Annesley and Woodford Halse – a distance of around 70 miles (110 km). Wagons filled from the South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire collieries were assembled into trains at Annesley and taken to Woodford Halse where they would be sorted into separate onward trains depending on the wagons' destination to the south. The relatively sparse service pattern on
1264-479: The Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR). He had grand ambitions for the company: he had plans to transform it from a provincial middle-of-the-road railway company into a major national player. He grew tired of handing over potentially lucrative London-bound traffic to rivals, and, after several unsuccessful attempts in the 1870s to co-build a line to London with other companies, decided that
1343-507: The Marylebone Cricket Club in London through which the line would pass, but it was agreed to put the line through a tunnel under the grounds. The first sod of the new railway was cut at Alpha Road, St John's Wood, London, on 13 November 1894 by Countess Wharncliffe, wife of 1st Earl of Wharncliffe , the chairman of the board. The new line, 92 miles (148 km) long, started at Annesley, being in effect an extension of
1422-614: The Metropolitan Railway (MetR) over use of their tracks at the southern end of the route, the company built the Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway joint line (1906) from Grendon Underwood to Ashendon Junction , by-passing the greater part of the MetR's tracks. Apart from a small freight branch to Gotham between Nottingham and Loughborough, and the " Alternative Route " link added later (1906), these were
1501-600: The Nottingham Express Transit (NET), Nottingham's second generation tramway . The first section is north from Ruddington Lane tram stop as far as the River Trent , used by the 2015-opened line 2 of NET. North of the river the Great Central route was eliminated by housing development in the 1970s and the tramway uses a different route across the river and north to Nottingham railway station (the former Midland station). The GCML crossed above this on
1580-575: The Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway at Woodford Halse proved strategically important for freight on the route. Another major centre for freight was at Annesley . The relatively sparse passenger service on the GCML, especially as traffic declined after the Second World War , allowed time and room on the line for more heavy fast freight services than on the busier Midland Main Line or East Coast Main Line. In 1947
1659-479: The 1930s, there were six expresses a day from Marylebone to Sheffield, calling at Leicester and Nottingham, and onto Manchester. Some of these achieved a London–Sheffield timing of 3 hours and 6 minutes in 1939, making them fully competitive with the rival Midland service out of St Pancras in terms of journey time. Freight traffic grew healthily and became the lifeblood of the line, the staples being coal, iron ore, steel, and fish and banana trains. The connection with
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#17327765078871738-511: The 40-mile (64 km) stretch of main line between Calvert and Rugby, closed in 1966, is still intact except for missing viaducts at Brackley and Willoughby. Various proposals for its reopening have been made. Frequent passenger services operated by Chiltern Railways run over the joint line between London Marylebone and Aylesbury Vale Parkway , and also between Marylebone and High Wycombe (continuing northwards to Princes Risborough , Bicester North , Banbury and Birmingham Snow Hill via
1817-412: The 500-metre (547 yd) Loughborough Gap is underway which will unite the two surviving preserved sections of the GCR. This will result in an 18-mile (29 km) section of the line from Leicester North station to Ruddington station , south of Nottingham, open for heritage trains. Network Rail were involved in reinstating a bridge taking the Great Central over the Midland Main Line. In March 2010
1896-533: The A60 bridge was completely refurbished to allow trains on the GCR north to run again. 52°46′42″N 1°11′37″W / 52.77844°N 1.19349°W / 52.77844; -1.19349 Great Central Main Line The Great Central Main Line ( GCML ), also known as the London Extension of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR), is a former railway line in
1975-550: The Beeching era, and one of the most controversial. In a letter published in The Daily Telegraph on 28 September 1965, Denis Anthony Brian Butler , 9th Earl of Lanesborough, a peer and railway supporter, wrote: [Among] the main lines in the process of closure, surely the prize for idiotic policy must go to the destruction of the until recently most profitable railway per ton of freight and per passenger carried in
2054-424: The GCML and the line's high engineering standards with near-continuous but gentle rising and falling gradients, made it possible to run these trains at much higher speeds than was normal. Coal trains, consisting of mineral wagons not equipped with brakes that could be controlled by the driver, usually ran at no more than 25 mph (40 km/h) and had to descend steep gradients at little more than walking pace. On
2133-417: The GCML these trains could run at 50 or 60 mph (80 or 97 km/h), continually but slowly accelerating away from Annesley (which kept the couplings between taut and the wagons stable) and being able to run without needing to slow for gradients or for other traffic until they slowed for arrival at Woodford Halse. Originally known as the 'Annesley Runners', these trains became known as the 'Windcutters' in
2212-508: The GCR must comply with over the bridge. Preparatory work on the bridge over the Midland Main Line began on 12 February 2016 while the main construction work commenced in April 2017, with the main bridge beams being installed in September 2017. In the early hours of 3 September 2017 a 1000-tonne crane was used to lift the two steel beams forming the basis of the bridge into place. The bridge
2291-506: The GCR's builders had hoped. However, there was some success in appealing to higher-class 'business' travellers in providing high-speed luxurious trains, promoted by the jingle 'Rapid Travel in Luxury'. These were in a way the first long-distance commuter trains. The Great Central also became important for cross-country trains, which took advantage of its connections to other lines. At the height of fast, long-distance passenger steam trains in
2370-581: The GNR) to London from its main line. Annesley was also only a little more than 90 miles (140 km) from London. The Derbyshire Lines opened in 1892 and 1893 and by the time these routes were in full operation the MS&LR was already seeking parliamentary approval for the London Extension. Once the London Extension was opened (and the MS&LR had become the Great Central Railway) the Derbyshire Lines were, for all practical purposes, treated as
2449-511: The MS&LR needed to create its own route to the capital. Construction of the GCML was commissioned to enable Watkin's railway company to operate its own direct express route to London independently of – and in competition with – rival railway companies. At the time many people questioned the wisdom of building the line, as all the significant population centres which the line traversed were already served by other companies. However, Watkin defended it by arguing that growth in traffic would justify
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2528-539: The Midland Main Line, and then the embankment to its south. Unfortunately, the following year the Hermitage Brook flooded, resulting in additional contractors being engaged to reimplement part of the railway's former embankment. After the formation of the Great Central as a heritage railway , bridging the resultant "gap" always became a significant challenge to realise the full operational vision. Since
2607-630: The Midland Railway. After the decision was made to close the GCR as part of the Beeching Axe , in the late 1960s contractors were appointed to remove the railway tracks and major parts of the civil engineering infrastructure. This included the section north of Loughborough Central to north of the Midland Main Line . Contractors initially removed the railway tracks, before also removing the bridges and supporting buttresses over
2686-535: The Midland main line. Four railway companies served Leicester: GCR, Midland, GNR, and LNWR. Avoiding Wigston , the GCR served Lutterworth (the only town on the GCR not to be served by another railway company) before reaching the town of Rugby (at Rugby Central ), where it crossed at right-angles over, and did not connect with, the LNWR's West Coast Main Line . It continued southwards to Woodford Halse , where there
2765-537: The North and the East Midlands to London and the south of England. Initially not a financial success, it recovered under the leadership of Sam Fay . Although initially planned for long-distance passenger services, in practice the line's most important function became to carry goods traffic, notably coal. In the 1960s, the line was considered by Dr Beeching as an unnecessary duplication of other lines that served
2844-641: The United Kingdom. The line was opened in 1899 and built by the Great Central Railway running from Sheffield in the North of England , southwards through Nottingham and Leicester to Marylebone in London. The GCML was the last main line railway to be built in Britain during the Victorian period . It was built by the railway entrepreneur Edward Watkin with the aim to run as a fast trunk route from
2923-529: The branch is connected to the Midland Mainline, and Ruddington is operated as a heritage railway by the Great Central Railway (Nottingham) (GCRN). The section of GCRN route between Loughborough South Jn and East Leake is maintained to mainline standard and used by trains serving the Gypsum works at East Leake. North of Ruddington, and as far as Nottingham, sections of the GCML right of way are used by
3002-607: The bridge over the Midland Main Line at Loughborough. In July 2014, the GCR received a one million pound grant from the UK Government's "Local Growth Deal", via an allocation to the Leicester and Leicestershire Local Enterprise Partnership; the grant will support the GCR's "Bridging the Gap" project. On 15 April 2014 a planning application was submitted by Great Central Railway PLC with Network Rail acting as agents for "Installation of rail bridge over midland mainline"; which
3081-441: The clearing of a cutting from which 600,000 cubic yards (460,000 m ) of sandstone were removed. The purchase of the land cost £473,000 (equivalent to £69,010,000 in 2023), and the construction of the station brought the sum to over £1,000,000. The original estimated cost for the construction of the line was £3,132,155, however in the event it cost £11,500,000 (equivalent to £1,635,140,000 in 2023), nearly four times
3160-416: The closure of the line, Morley Street industrial estate had been developed on part of the site formerly occupied by the embankment, whilst Charnwood Borough Council had developed, filled with household waste and then covered a landfill to the south. The GCR itself, having started re-instatement of the GCR line from Loughborough Central to the south, had developed its locomotive shed on the old alignment to
3239-604: The country, stretches to 106 hectares (260 acres) and partly reuses the clay pits dug out by Calvert Brickworks which closed in 1991. The Main Line Preservation Group was established in 1968, to preserve part of the remaining section of the Great Central main line. The group was reformed, in 1971, as Main Line Steam Trust Limited and the group's original ambitions were trimmed to exclude the section north of Loughborough. Restoration work on
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3318-462: The covered former household refuse site; and to the north and south by GCR's northern and southern sections respectively. Current plans for bridging the gap, using a single-track line, include: Once complete, the project will create a combined 18-mile-long (29 km) heritage railway. After the UK Government 's announcement in 2012 that the Midland Main Line would be electrified by 2018,
3397-437: The embankment reinstated and the current train shed demolished and replaced by one close by as the shed occupies the main line alignment. In addition signalling will need be connected and updated to match the other preserved line. As a relatively late-developed railway in the United Kingdom, the GCR was forced to make some expensive civil engineering choices in order to complete their route. Just north of Loughborough Central ,
3476-425: The end of the 20th century and in the 21st century, the line has been subject to a range of proposals for its use and reuse. The GCML was very much a strategic line in concept. It was not intended to duplicate the Midland line by serving a great many centres of population. Instead it was intended to link the MS&LR's system stretching across northern England directly to London at as high a speed as possible and with
3555-453: The fourth episode of the 17th series of BBC 's Top Gear programme, shown on 17 July 2011 during a train/car feature, which was filmed in June 2011. From a long fenced pathway alongside the northward line, the running shed can be viewed. This large 3-road building has to accommodate both residential and visiting motive power, as well as serving as a workshop. Unlike most other railways, it
3634-441: The government announced plans for a future high-speed railway between London and Birmingham that would reuse about 12 miles of the GCR route. The proposed line would parallel the current Aylesbury line (former Met/GCR joint) corridor and then continue alongside the GCR line between Quainton Road and Calvert. From there it would roughly follow the disused but still extant GCR trackbed via Finmere as far as Mixbury before diverging on
3713-418: The larger continental European loading gauge with the aim of accommodating mainland rolling stock should the line could be connected via future channel tunnel this is untrue. It was built to the standard Great Central loading gauge of the time, which was in fact slightly more restrictive than some other British railways; and it was certainly not to Berne gauge which is some 8 in. (200 mm) taller and
3792-658: The latter serving the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre . In November 2011 HM Government allocated funding for reopening of the section between Bicester Town and Bletchley (via Claydon Junction ), and between Aylesbury Vale Parkway and Claydon Junction, as part of the East West Rail scheme, which might have seen passenger services operating between Reading and Milton Keynes Central (via Oxford ) and between London Marylebone and Milton Keynes (via Aylesbury). as of January 2021 , this element
3871-409: The line between Loughborough Central and the northern outskirts of Leicester commenced and, by 1973, Steam train services were operated under the supervision of a British Railways Inspector. In 1976 operations were transferred to Great Central Railway (1976) Limited a company that, as Great Central Railway plc, remains active to this day. The section of line between Loughborough South Junction, where
3950-705: The line including the 21-arch Brackley Viaduct , and viaducts at Braunston , Staverton and Catesby in Northamptonshire , a steel lattice viaduct known as the 'bird cage' bridge carried the GCML over the West Coast Main Line at Rugby , while another viaduct was built over the River Soar , along with two over Swithland Reservoir in Leicestershire , and one over the River Trent near Nottingham. Several tunnels had to be built,
4029-432: The longest of which was the 2,997 yards (2,740 m) Catesby Tunnel . Many miles of cuttings and embankments were also built. The construction of the railway through Nottingham and the station involved heavy earthworks with 6,750 feet (2,060 m) of tunnelling and almost 1 mile (1.6 km) of viaduct. The site for Nottingham Victoria railway station required the demolition of 1,300 houses, 20 public houses and
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#17327765078874108-474: The main bridge beams being installed in September of that year. The bridge is expected to be completed in 2019. The replacement bridge was completed ahead of schedule in August 2018. However due to slight encroachment on the original trackbed, the bridge is slightly askew from the original alignment. Refurbishment has also been conducted on the canal bridge just beyond the existing train shed. Future work will see
4187-552: The new line. Watkin was an ambitious visionary; as well as running an independent trunk route into London, where he was chairman of the Metropolitan Railway , he was also involved in a project to dig a channel tunnel under the English Channel to connect with the rail network of France , a scheme vetoed several times by the British Parliament for fear of military invasion by France; however, this project
4266-683: The newly completed Derbyshire Lines. The new London-bound line started at the northern entrance to the Annesley marshalling yard (this point becoming the new Annesley North Junction) from where it passed to the east of the sidings and the GNR Leen Valley line before bridging over both the GNR and Midland lines at Linby and heading to Nottingham. The southern end of the London Extension was at Quainton Road in Buckinghamshire . From here,
4345-479: The north of the station. The Gap is 500 metres (550 yd) long, and approximately 30 metres (33 yd) wide for most of its length, running due north–south approximately 1 kilometre (0.6 mi) north from Loughborough Central . It is bounded: to the west by the northeasternmost part of Loughborough, including the Loughborough Midland station and Morley Street industrial estate; to the east by
4424-417: The north, and the three original water tanks are all Grade II listed . Original station facilities include: ladies' waiting room and powder room; general waiting room; gentlemen's toilets; and a refreshment room/cafe. In 2009, a £20,000 grant allowed the station to have new toilets, and a lift in the entrance hall to be installed for the benefits of the disabled visitors. The railway society have also added
4503-482: The only branch lines from the London extension. The line crossed several other railways but had few junctions with them. North of Sheffield, express trains on the London extension made use of the pre-existing MS&LR trans- Pennine main line, the Woodhead Line (now also closed) to give access to Manchester London Road (now named Manchester Piccadilly). In 1864 Sir Edward Watkin took over directorship of
4582-476: The original estimate. Features of the line were: The line was formally opened by Charles Ritchie, 1st Baron Ritchie of Dundee , President of the Board of Trade on 9 March 1899. Three special corridor trains, forming part of the new rolling stock constructed for the new line, were run from Manchester, Sheffield and Nottingham to the terminus at Marylebone for the inaugural ceremony. A lunch for nearly 300 guests
4661-480: The owning organisation needs to have a minimum net present value of over £250M. As the GCR can not clearly meet this criterion, after contract negotiations, it was agreed that Charnwood Borough Council will retain ownership of the land up to the southern abutment of the new bridge, whilst Network Rail will become the owner of the new bridge. The GCR will resultantly negotiate an operational lease agreement with Network Rail, which will define operational requirements which
4740-435: The preserved railway, the only station with a complete canopy, the longest in railway preservation. The station was closed by British Rail under the Beeching Axe , on 5 May 1969. Reopened by the Great Central Railway as part of the restored heritage railway in 1974, train services currently run south from the station to Leicester North . Within the station complex, the station buildings, original GCR signal box sited to
4819-473: The project timescales to be completed or not were implemented. In 2013, the GCR engaged Network Rail to act as project engineers, project manager and main contractor to complete the project. In June 2013, the GCR and Network Rail signed an agreement to allow bridging of the Midland Main Line, including the underlying operations, maintenance and legal liability agreements for such. Preliminary works began January 2014 with boreholes being drilled in preparation for
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#17327765078874898-433: The railway had to cross the existing Leicester section of the Grand Union Canal , before then crossing the existing Midland Main Line formation as well as avoiding the Hermitage Brook, before moving northwards to Nottingham . Choosing to approach the location on a raised embankment , the railway engineers used a steel-decked span bridge to cross the canal and a double-deck, double-width steel-decked span bridge to cross
4977-425: The rebuilding of Reading station. Although the GCR owns the track from Loughborough to Leicester North, the underlying land is owned by Charnwood Borough Council , on a 99-year lease signed in 1976. Bridges over or under Network Rail infrastructure must be owned by organisations which can provide suitable legal liability to any incidents which may occur as a result of operations, which means to meet this requirement
5056-448: The route followed the existing Metropolitan Railway (MetR) extension which became joint MetR/GCR owned as far as Harrow and thence along the (GCR owned) final section to Marylebone station . Construction of the route involved some major engineering works, including three new major city-centre stations ( Nottingham Victoria , Leicester Central and Marylebone) along with many smaller ones. A number of new viaducts were constructed for
5135-581: The route were cancelled and many rural local stations were closed. However, at this time it was still hoped that better use of the route could be made for parcels and goods traffic. In the 1960s Beeching cuts , Dr Beeching decided that the London to Northern England route was already well served by other lines, to which most of the traffic on the GCR could be diverted. Closure was seen as inevitable. The sections between Rugby and Aylesbury and between Nottingham and Sheffield were closed in 1966, leaving only an unconnected stub between Rugby and Nottingham, on which
5214-485: The same places, especially the Midland Main Line and to a lesser extent the West Coast Main Line . Most of the route was closed between 1966 and 1969 under the Beeching axe . Parts of the former main line have been preserved as the Great Central Railway between Leicester and Loughborough , and the Great Central Railway (Nottingham) between Loughborough South Junction and Ruddington's former GCR station site. At
5293-412: The site, originating from Brentford , Cricklewood and Northolt . There was also a daily train from Bath and Bristol (known as the "Avon Binliner") until April 2011. The containers, each of which contains 14 tonnes of waste, are unloaded at the transfer station onto lorries awaiting alongside which then transport the waste to the landfill site. The site, dating from 1977 and now one of the largest in
5372-401: The town centre than the former Midland Railway station. Commuter EMU trains run from Hadfield to Manchester Piccadilly via Glossop . These are modern trains using 25 kV overhead wires that were installed to replace the 1500 V DC system. Daily steel trains run from Sheffield to Deepcar where they feed the nearby Stocksbridge Steelworks owned by Tata Group . Reconstruction of
5451-404: The whole British Railways system, as shown by their own operating statistics. These figures were presented to monthly management meetings until the 1950s, when they were suppressed as "unnecessary", but one suspects really "inconvenient" for those proposing Beeching type policies of unnecessarily severe contraction of services [...] This railway is of course the Great Central [...]. The trackbed of
5530-664: Was a connection with the East and West Junction Railway (later incorporated into the Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway ), and slightly further south the GCR branch to the Great Western Railway station at Banbury diverged. From Woodford Halse the route continued approximately south-east via Brackley to Calvert and Quainton Road , where Great Central trains joined the Metropolitan Railway (later Metropolitan and Great Central Joint Railway ) via Aylesbury into London. Partly because of disagreements with
5609-506: Was adjacent to Newstead colliery and also had a connection with the Midland Railway . Thus MS&LR trains could run through onto the GNR's Leen Valley line and so southwards onto the rest of the GNR network via Nottingham and Grantham to the terminus of the GNR at King's Cross . This gave the MS&LR a more convenient route to send both freight and passenger traffic (the latter by through-coaches and ticketing agreements with
5688-474: Was also the shortest-lived intercity railway line. The London Extension's main competitor was the Midland Railway which had served the route between London, the East Midlands and Sheffield since the 1860s on its Midland Main Line . Traffic was slow to establish itself on the new line, passenger traffic especially so. Enticing customers away from the established lines into London was more difficult than
5767-409: Was effectively moribund by the time work on the GCML commenced, and historians who have examined the available primary sources have found no contemporaneous statement by Watkin that he envisaged through workings over the lines he controlled from Manchester to France. Although it is frequently claimed (by authors not referencing primary sources) that Watkin's Great Central Main Line was designed to
5846-540: Was expected to be completed in 2019. As of late 2017, £2.5m had been spent installing the bridge over the Midland Main Line. In 2014 a detailed assessment of work on the double track bridge over the Grand Union canal had been undertaken. The bridge had last carried trains in 1969. As of October 2017 three separate quotes for renovating the bridge had been obtained, refurbishment is expected to cost about £400,000. Bridge refurbishment completed July 2020. In 2022,
5925-488: Was granted for the first major component: a replacement 30-metre single-span bridge over the Midland Main Line. An additional station called Loughborough High Level will be built to connect with Loughborough (Midland) station on the Midland Main Line. As of May 2016, the bridge was intended to be owned by Charnwood Borough Council and then leased back to the Great Central Railway for one hundred years in exchange for maintenance costs. Work commenced in April 2017, with
6004-488: Was granted on 27 June 2014. The bridge was envisioned as being single-track and made of two spans and a central supporting pillar in the middle. On 10 February 2015 a non-material minor amendment was applied for in order to allow construction using a single-span bridge design "to remove [the] central pillar"; which was granted by Charnwood Borough Council on 26 March 2015. A two-span design had originally been proposed in order to enable reuse of bridge components removed during
6083-753: Was largely neglected as other railway lines were thought to be more important. Although a very straight and direct line, it was designated a duplicate of the curvier Midland Main Line . In 1958 the line was transferred from the management of the Eastern Region to the London Midland Region , whose management still had loyalties to former companies (Midland/LMS) and against their rivals GCR/LNER. In January 1960, express passenger services from London to Sheffield and Manchester were discontinued, leaving only three "semi-fast" London-Nottingham trains per day. In March 1963 local trains on many parts of
6162-466: Was not agreed and adopted until 1912/13. Prior to the construction of the London Extension proper, the MS&LR had extended its reach southwards from its main trans-Pennine axis. In 1889 the company obtained an Act of Parliament to construct a line from Woodhouse Junction on its original Sheffield to Lincoln main line to Annesley in Nottinghamshire . The 'Derbyshire Lines' also included
6241-462: Was provided, and then the trains made the return trip. Public passenger services began on 15 March 1899, and for goods traffic on 11 April 1899. Shortly before the opening of the new line, the MS&LR changed its name to the grander-sounding " Great Central Railway " (GCR) to reflect its new-found national ambitions. The London extension was the last mainline railway line to be built in Britain until section one of High Speed 1 opened in 2003. It
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