The Great Central Railway Station With A Difference
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- Опубліковано 13 вер 2024
- Welcome to part 5 of my series looking at the Reunification of the Great Central Railway.
We've making our way north along what will be the reunified railway. We're still in the village of East Leake, where we've already seen the old original GCR station site. However there was one more station in East Leake.
In 1910, so just over a decade after the GCR opened, a new stop was added - Rushcliffe Halt. Not your typical GCR design. No island platform and signature buildings. It's a simple flanking platform setup, with a siding and minimal wooden buildings. There was a small station building up at road level that we will see the foundations of, a toilet and a footbridge.
We're also seeing the nearby Gypsum works, which kept freight traffic on this line until only recently. Plaster board is made here I believe.
Just beyong the station is a former signal box. The more modern, is 1940s can be considered modern, Hotchley Hill Signal Box is currently ungoing restoration after years of neglect and vandalism. This was built dueing the LNER period. When the line is open, this will be the only passing loop on the northern half, so the signal box will play a key role.
Link to Hotchley Hill Signal Box video - • Reviving Hotchley Hill...
This is now the Great Central Railway (Nottingham) section of the line. This part of the line has not seen trains since 2020, however remained active as a freight line until it was taken on by the Ruddington based heritage railway - NTHC - Nottingham Transport Heritage Centre.
Great Central Mainline was built as the London Extension of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire railway. Opening in 1899, it was designed to be as straight as possible with as little gradient as possible. Speed was the aim and express trains travelled between London Marylebone, Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester. It was the last UK mainline to be built before HS1 over a century later. It thrived initially, however with a lack of upkeep, neglect and dwindling usage, it was mothballed during the great railway rationalisation of Dr Beeching in the 1960s - known as the Beeching Axe.
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5:40 - First time I went into that box it was a burnt out shell. There was a giant charred hole in the operating floor, the level frame beneath just had smashed off stubs of levers. There was no glass in any of the windows (some of which had a metal grills over. It's an amazing transformation to see what the lads have achieved in recent times.
6:20 - Before the old station portacabin museum was condemned, we had a display of recovered telegraph pole ceramic insulators recovered from south of the bridge, along with other station trivia.
4:40 - On the down platform was the newly delivered 4-CIG stock which had been delivered by rail to RH a few days before. It was then transported by road to Quorn & Woodhouse and was converted into a 5-BIG - but for various reasons it was under utilised, and sent to the Coventry electric railway museum where it was eventually scrapped.
3:07 - That was, indeed, the toilet. In about 2003/4, I dug out all the soil that had buried those steps, as we needed to know where the drain went.
That would be the cleanest piece of line I've seen on the whole UK network! Great work, and with a possible customer there still? Electric signalling and all. I would live in a signal box if given the chance. Those telegraph poles should be Grade listed as they are the carriers of the first telephony in the UK. Great work guys and gals. Brilliant video. Cheers!
Thanks very much. It's a great location isn't it. I can't wait to visit when trains are running through again.
That place was a real surprise the first time I went around a year or so back, so I kept quiet so that you could get the same thrill I got. A lot of work has gone into the place, the people on the project deserve a lot of credit.
Totally agree 👍🙂.
Highlight of the day for me. Aside from the bakery 😄
Great work. One of my earliest memories is catching the train there with my mum to Arkwright Street and Nottingham Victoria. According to "East Leake Past and Present" by Alan Hall the rumour is that the building of the station was at the behest of The Freemasons to allow easier access to the nearby Rushcliffe Golf Club for its members.
😄 that's a great piece of info. Can you imagine that these days? It seems a mammoth task for any new station or railway improvement
Excellent as always, thank you.
Thank you Peter 👍🙂
6:30 - That's actually period accurate for the 1941 (approx) re-signalling. It's a 4-aspect searchlight signal (so the bottom light shows red, yellow and green, and the top light shows just yellow), to the same pattern the LNER installed during WWII.
Cheers for all the great info. I've enjoyed reading about yout experiences on some of the details at the station. I'll go back one day and hopefully it will be on board a train.
@@WobblyRunner Hopefully not too far in the future!
@@WobblyRunner I tried to keep all my comments separate to improve your channel's community interaction rating. You've put out some great videos - and I wish you all the success. :)
It's got so much to offer ! , a very pretty site looking from the gypsum end , a wonderful unique viewing opportunity , a natural theatre, and that wonderful signal box is so interesting , thanks for sharing
Thanks Steve. I'm looking forward to trains running through it again.
Hi. We, as a family came across your videos recently, around Queens Park and Brampton. Great videos and very engaging! The question arose whether you’ve covered Spital. We came across an old photo of a post office under a railway bridge and wondered whether you have come across it on your travels? Keep sharing your videos and thanks for your help. 😊👍
Thanks very much 👍🙂
I think I know the bridge with post office you're referring to. I remember seeing a photo of it.
@@WobblyRunner I think it ran east slightly north of the A617. I'd be interested if you ever feature it as I was surprised it was a line as there doesn't seem any sign of it that I could see now.
@@martinrs03 this one? ua-cam.com/video/QA5taPdC4Ow/v-deo.html
Nice one Paul see you on the next. 😊👍
Thanks Carol 👍🙂
Nice little video Paul. Like you I wasn’t expecting much from it. And like yo, I had a very pleasant surprise.😀
👍🙂
Another interesting video, not been to this halt, but it’s good what the GCR have done there, it will be great to travel on that line once the connection at the Loughborough end is made.
I agree. I look forward to travelling on the line.
Another interesting video Paul, love that searchlight colourlight signal, will look great if they use those. I think they are extinct on the network now after the one at Clacton went a few years ago
Cheers Russ. I understand the colour lights are going to be restored too as part of the signalling 🙂
@@WobblyRunner that will look mint as no railway has old colourlight signalling
❤👍