Great Central Railway (Nottingham) Ltd
NORTHERN EXTENSION
When British Railways closed the Great Central's London extension,
the preservationist's original plan was to run all the way between Rugby and
Nottingham. This was soon scaled down, and initially less than three miles were
preserved, now extended to eight in Leicestershire.
The Nottinghamshire section of track north of Loughborough was
kept by BR for freight traffic to the British Gypsum works at Rushcliffe Halt,
and the ordnance depot at Ruddington. Initially access was through Weekday
Cross Junction in Nottingham, but in 1977 a chord line from the Midland at
Loughborough was laid to give access to these sites. The material for this
chord was removed from the embankment between the preserved section of line,
and the Midland, effectively marooning the preserved railway.
Traffic to the ordnance depot continued until 1983, and to the
gypsum works until 1985. The last train to Ruddington was the "Ruddington
Requiem Railtour" special on 9th June 1984.
Interest in this section of line grew, particularly in the
Nottingham branch of the Main Line Steam Trust, and soon regular meetings were
being held with an aim of extending the Great Central Railway north to
Ruddington. Hence the new Great Central Railway – Northern Development Association
was formed. British Gypsum at Rushcliffe Halt very generously offered to store
a few items of rolling stock acquired at that time, and the Y7 from
Loughborough made a couple of visits to the sidings for the work's open-days.
Negotiations began with the local councils, who were investigating
further uses for the former Ordnance depot (now minus rail link) at Ruddington.
Eleven acres of the former depot including three large buildings were
eventually to the project, and the rest of the site was levelled to create the
Rushcliffe Country Park.
The Ruddington Station run round loop track was purchased in late
1992, and recovered to reconnect the missing mile of track between the ordnance
depot and the main line. Early 1993 saw the County Council purchasing the 2.77
miles of track bed south of the former Ruddington station site, to the
'railbreak' just north of Rushcliffe Halt. The recently formed Great Central
(Nottingham) Limited Company raised sufficient money to purchase the track on
this section of line. Following the reconnection of the depot in 1995,
attention has been turned to refurbishing this section of track.
Negotiations are in hand to allow trains from Ruddington to have
access to the platforms at Rushcliffe Halt. The re-introduced use of the
Rushcliffe Halt area by EWSR trains makes access by the GCR(N) trains subject
to adequate signalling and point locking being in place to isolate the
preserved line from the active line connected to Railtrack lines at
Loughborough. It is expected that the preserved line will be used only at
weekends initially which should not conflict with EWS workings which tend to be
mid-week operations. There are five miles of track between Rushcliffe Halt and
the missing bridge and embankment at Loughborough, which the Great Central hope
to use for both our own services, and the continuing services to the British
Gypsum works.