Bridge that Gap: Great Central Railway News

A higher standard, I'm not party to the details but it involved ultrasonic axle testing of each vehicle involved that didn't usually run at the higher speed and an increased frequency of examination. Along with various restrictions upon the line, eg Quorn and Swithland signalbox switched out of circuit as it is signalled for 60mph not 75mph, and no member of staff lineside with access to the railway through gates chained and padlocked.

 

Cheers Jamie.

 

Is there any news on the A60 bridge progress does anybody know? Not seen an update since the bridge lift.

TIA
Will

 

The new bridge went in on time, but I don't think any ballast or track has been put on it yet. I would think there is a waterproof membrane and some covering though.

 

Thats what I was told as well at the weekend when having a tour of the shed. On the canal bridge they have put a covering of ballast, but its not up to the level of the surrounding ground as there's a distinct lip. I imagine that they will wait until all the work is done, so that it the track and ballast can be laid all the way through to make sure that its all aligned.

 

There is already ballast north and south of the A60 bridge so it would be more of a 'fill in' job, to the heights already in place, for where the running line off the chord and beyond is/was. The non running line had the ballast removed years ago to reduce the load on the bridge structure.

I suspect its more to do with EMRT not having anyone currently who does anything on that part of the line (as GCR have not taken it on, and they took it off GCRN) so would need contractors and somebody else to organise it.

It makes sense to put something down as the water proofing may well by sensitive to UV, a layer of ballast is pretty effective at protecting such things

 

It is believed that the planning permission has been applied for for the "Factory Fly-over" section and the fund raising has nearly reached the £2M mark....according to talk during the Q W & W weekend on the FoGCRML stand. So hopefully there will be an official update soon.

 

Nothing showing on the Charnwood planning portal

 

A small (but positive) update has been posted here - Reunification - Great Central Railway (gcrailway.co.uk)

 

A memorandum of understanding between Loughborough and Ruddington is good news indeed. It makes me a bit more minded to restart my direct debit...

 

There is also a new 12 page leaflet about the project. This can be viewed via the GCR website in the Reunification August update.

 

There was a meeting of a new joint committee (GCR plus GCR(N) plus others) to help the planning and implementation of Reunification according to the latest GCR Video update.
It also implied that more paperwork/plans need to be finalised before it (Factory Flyover) can to go to the Planning dept.

 

The latest GM Update video has the news that the track is to be relayed over the A60 bridge this month. So a little bit more progress.

 

Do you have a link to the video, please?.

 

An interesting update in the latest copy of Mainline. I'm very pleased to be reading about the establishment of a dedicated project board (it's beyond me why it's taken so long to recognise that such a body is a Good Thing to Have with a project like this). I'm considering whether the project has been turned around enough to warrant my re-starting my direct debit in support.
The really interesting bit though is that "it transpires doubling to Leicester North isn't just nice to do but very important when the line is 18 miles long". Now there's something I'd definitely be minded to contribute toward.

 

So when both sites are joined together, it's going to be 18 miles long?

 

Presumably the reason why doubling to Leicester North is very important is an operational reason? I am very much not familiar with that, but can anyone shed any light on or unpack this please?

 

I'm also curious about this, especially when north of Loughborough is predominantly single track.

 

If that museum gets built one day then surely you would want to maximise the traffic able to get to it?

 

Yes.

Elsewhere in Mainline, it mentions "one of the tasks currently being undertaken is understanding future timetables to help inform what infrastructure might be needed to ensure there is the right level of flexibility and avoidance of pinch points. Early work suggests that very quickly the single track between Rothley and Leicester North becomes a considerable timetable constraint." I don't know how this ties in to @35B's point about north of Loughborough, and the presumably even bigger constraint of the 10 mile single track with loops. But I'm confident it's being looked at, and if it's early days still, there may be no point in mentioning anything whilst the study continues.

Also worth mentioning from Mainline I think, given previous concerns, is the news of the drafting of a Memorandum of Understanding between GCR PLC and GCR(N), setting out how the two organisations work towards aligning processes, systems and ways of working explicitly with the intent of being able to operate as one railway.