The Great Central Railway (GCR) is a heritage railway in Leicestershire, England, named after the company that originally built this section of railway. It runs for between the town of Loughborough and a new terminus in the north of Leicester. It has period signalling, locomotives and rolling stock.

Four stations are in operation, each restored to a period in the railway's commercial history: (the 1950s); Quorn & Woodhouse (Second World War and the remainder of the 1940s); (Edwardian Era); Leicester North (the 1960s).

The railway is currently involved in a major project to rebuild the missing line, known as the Loughborough Gap, between Loughborough and the Great Central Railway (Nottingham).

Background history

In 1897, the Great Central Railway itself was formed, becoming the last steam mainline in the United Kingdom. Two years later in 1899, "The London Extension" was officially opened to passenger and freight traffic, allowing more direct journeys from the capital to Nottingham, Leicester, Sheffield and Manchester. This construction scheme was devised by chairman Sir Edward Watkin, who had envisioned his railway one day running through a channel tunnel to France, linking Britain with the continent.

However, this never came to fruition; indeed, the Beeching report which led to cutback and closure was published in 1963, some 31 years before the tunnel was fully constructed. In the report, the line was described as a duplicate of the Midland Main Line. Apart from the most southerly section into London, the line was closed as a through route in 1966 as part of the Beeching Axe, although a section of the line between Nottingham and Rugby remained open until 1969. The closure became one of Doctor Beeching's largest cutbacks.

Preservation In the late 1960s, local groups who opposed the closure gathered together for a series of meetings at Leicester Central railway station and the Main Line Preservation Group (MLPG) was formed. There had been talk of restoring the entire closed line from to , but this was rationalised to a section from to Leicester and later, because British Rail retained the single track between Loughborough and Ruddington for British Gypsum freight and access to the now-closed Ministry of Defence base, the group's plans focussed on the Loughborough to Leicester section. The published aim of MLPG was "to acquire a suitable length of main line, for the operation of steam hauled passenger trains, at realistic speeds"."How You Can Help", a pamphlet printed for the Main Line Preservation Group by the Winfield Press, Rugby, in 1969 Work began on salvaging as much reusable material as possible for the project from the recent demolitions.

The early years (1969–1976) The MLPG received a lease on the station, buildings and most of the trackbed at in 1970; this would become its base of operations. By the following year, negotiations into purchasing the rest of the remaining railway had proven successful and the group was able to buy it for a mere £75,000 (£ in ). The rest of the Loughborough yard complex was secured in 1972. In the same year, the first coaching stock arrived on site. The first open day occurred in 1973, shortly after the arrival of working motive power. Passengers were offered simple wagon or coach rides run by small industrial locomotives. On 30 September 1973, LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 No. 5231 hauled the first passenger train since the railway's commercial closure, to Quorn and back, but at the same time the down line was being lifted between Birstall and Quorn because of BR's increasing demands.

To purchase what was left of the track, the MLPG was re-merged into a supporting charity, the Main Line Steam Trust (MLST). The entire value of the of up line was re-assessed by BR at £279,000 (£ in ) and the MLST was now paying £3,300 a month (£ in ) just to keep it. A deal was struck on 1 April 1976 that would see the remainder of the down line lifted if BR's cash demand was not raised. At that time, passenger trains were still running as far as Rothley, but, without an adequate supply of working mainline locomotives, the trust had to resort to using industrial tank engines working single track – some way short of the original vision of the MLPG seven years previously.

Great Central Railway PLC To purchase the land and track, Great Central Railway (1976) PLC issued shares, and the MLPG was transformed into the MLST, a charitable body, to support the company.

Charnwood Borough Council agreed to purchase the land from BR and lease it to the railway for 99 years. However, this still left GCR (1976) PLC the task of raising over £150,000 (£ in ) to purchase the track. Ultimately, the target was not met and only a single track between Loughborough and Quorn could be afforded (BR allowed more time to raise funds to purchase Quorn to Rothley). The double track from Rothley to Belgrave & Birstall was lifted, along with the 'down' line from Loughborough to Rothley.

In the late 1980s, the intention was announced to extend the line back to Belgrave & Birstall. The former station had been vandalised and the Railway had no choice but to demolish the buildings. In 1990, a station called Leicester North was opened a hundred metres to the south of Belgrave & Birstall. This shift in location placed the new station inside Leicester's city boundary, allowing the 'Leicester' tag to be included in the name, along with unlocking extra funds to assist in the construction.

The double track project (1991-present day)

In the 1990s David Clarke became president of the GCR and approached the railway about the possibility of double-tracking the line. As a signalling enthusiast, Clarke aspired to operate a signal box on a double track main line, and so the campaign to raise funds to double the section between Quorn and Rothley was launched, with Clarke himself providing a large amount of the capital.

After reaching Quorn, work moved ahead to extend the second track to Loughborough. The double track between Loughborough and Rothley opened on 1 June 2000. This gave additional capacity, which is especially useful at galas, where up to six trains may be in operation at any one time. This enables the running of non-passenger-carrying trains (freights, TPO set) during galas to a greater extent than any other heritage railway. It also means that the timetable can be generally adhered to, as delays do not cascade, as they do on single track lines.

Her Majesty's Rail Inspectorate has granted powers to run private test trains at up to 60 mph. Other special trains at public events run at up to . Typically, UK heritage railways are limited to a maximum speed of .

In 2004, a new signal box at Quorn opened, at that time the only preserved box in the UK with a double track on either side. With this new signal box, a train can, in theory, be dispatched from Loughborough every 10 minutes. A further signal box at Swithland Sidings has been fitted with Great Western Railway style signals, in the style of the GCR/GWR joint line via High Wycombe, allowing for a further capacity increase on the preserved GCR. The full Swithland project was completed in May 2012.

On 5 December 2012, the GCR was awarded the NRHA Signalling Award for this long-running and complicated project.

In 2016 the BBC reported that GCR and GCRN claimed that it was 'the only place in the world where full size steam engines can be seen passing each other'.

Major engineering projects

The gap and Loughborough Midland (High Level)

Approximately 500 metres (0.3 mi) separates the GCR to the south from another stretch of the former railway to the north, operated by the Great Central Railway (Nottingham), formerly known as the Nottingham Heritage Railway. "The Gap" from the GCR's Loughborough locomotive shed to where the line crosses the A60 is a section of embankment and bridges (including a large single span over the Midland Main Line) that would need to be reinstated to join the two concerns together. If completed, the GCRN would merge with the GCR to create a single track (the Greater Great Central Railway (GGCR), as it is known almost universally by Great Central staff), which would also be rebuilt as a double-track line for most, if not the whole, of its length.

The project has been moving forward steadily since February 2009, when it was announced that it would receive £350,000 for a feasibility study, Charnwood Borough Council having won a grant from the East Midlands Development Agency, with the GCR to contribute £100,000 towards a combined cost of £450,000 for the study.

As of 2022: A new (single-track) bridge over the Midland Main Line was completed in 2017 at a cost of about £3 million.Bridge to the Future, Grand Central Railway. Accessed 29 July 2022 The new bridge has been built with increased clearances to accommodate proposed future electrification of the Midland Main Line. In 2020 work was completed on refurbishing the bridge over the Grand Union Canal, at a cost of £475,000.Crossing the Canal, Grand Central Railway. Accessed 29 July 2022 In October/November 2022 the existing bridge over the A60, which had been damaged by corrosion and by repeated vehicle impacts, was replaced by a new twin-track structure, at a cost in excess of £1 million.Grand Central Reunification, Grand Central Railway. Accessed 29 July 2022

Remaining stages include a bridge over Railway Terrace and a 'flyover' over a factory car-park immediately to the north of it (together projected to cost £3 million), plus work to reinstate embankments to the north and south of the new bridges. It is proposed that work on the embankments will use current construction techniques to provide a higher but narrower structure than the original; while the Railway Terrace bridge is proposed to re-use one of two 17-metre road bridges removed as part of reconstruction work at Reading station in 2011 and made available by Network Rail to the project.

Earlier plans also suggested for the Nottingham side of the railway to build a new station, Loughborough High Level, immediately to the north of the Midland Main Line, which could be completed before the other works, and provide passengers with an easy walking connection to and from Loughborough main-line station.The Loughborough 'Gap', greatcentraltoday.com] This has not so far been taken forward.

In March 2024, it was announced that Loughborough Central locomotive shed- which lies over the original rail track north of Loughborough- is to be relocated as part of the railways unification project.

The Mountsorrel Railway Project

The Mountsorrel Railway project was originally devised and financed by Railway Vehicle Preservations Limited and aimed to rebuild the Mountsorrel branch off the Great Central railway at Swithland sidings to the working Mountsorrel quarry.

In 2006, the branch was essentially intact but the track was lifted in the mid-1960s. The original purpose of the reinstatement was to provide a carriage shed to house the restored carriages of Railway Vehicle Preservations Ltd and shelter them from the elements. In 2006, Railway Vehicle Preservations Limited applied for planning permission for the shed, but this was rejected due to badger setts discovered on site. The reinstatement of the line went ahead, instead being carried out by a separate group, the Mountsorrel Railway Project, directed by Steve Cramp. Work commenced in 2008 with the aim of relaying of line up to the bridge at Bond Lane, where a platform was planned to be built. By 2012, the line had been fully ballasted for half of its length, passing through Wood Lane Bridge and across into Mountsorrel Parish. RVP re-evaluated their plans for the shed at the end of the branch line, instead deciding upon putting an application in for a four road shed at the back of Swithland sidings.GCR Main Line Issue 153/Winter 2012 Pg 16 On 4 February 2013 the ambitious plans were given conditional approval.