Mountsorrel Heritage Centre

There is a Railcar service running on the Mountsorrel Branch on the Saturday and Sunday of the September Diesel Gala (2nd & 3rd) which was an unexpected find.

 

As well as the railcar service up the branch line to the heritage centre during the Saturday and Sunday of the Diesel gala, we will be running Colin as part of our shunting demonstrations on Saturday the 2nd. There will be cab rides on offer during the shunting sessions for £10. The perfect opportunity if you missed out during Colin's recent visit to Quorn, and hopefully with smaller ques too!

https://www.facebook.com/permalink....WpHb4AQbWtZcbEUiZ5VF1dwP2l&id=100028607396626

 

All clean (n.p. the photo was taken before I'd finished!) and ready to go...

 

A few from a rather warm Heritage Centre today......








The lift bridge is coming on rather nicely, as can be seen from one of the photos above, but it's got to the point now where there are some expensive bearings to replace along with some other metal parts that have been damaged over the years or are just missing.

The Jinty outside was a bit of a bonus as it is apparently departing on Monday for LMS and overhaul, so lubrication was being checked prior to its move to Quorn for onward road transport. An ex NCB Austerity 0-6-0ST is expected to take its place in the Heritage Centre Exhibition building for a while.......

 

There has been a bit more progress with the Lift Bridge.

 

I think it has been reported elsewhere, but now that 47406 has departed Nunckley Hill for overhaul, the space in the Museum has been filled by NCB Austerity Number 72 (Or Vulcan 5309), I believe previously stored at Peak Rail?

 

Unusual visitor to the Heritage Centre overnight on Saturday.......

 

I'm sure some more work has been done to the lift bridge, but it is difficult to see exactly what it is from a distance.

 

Mainly on the ground since the last photo. There are some substantial diagonal braces that go between the vertical uprights on the goal posts and the floor that have been cut to to length and shape, and notched and channeled to fit their socket on the vertical uprights and the supporting steelwork on the ground. Other than that a lot of effort is being put into our investigations to see if it will be possible to get the bridge to lift again. New bearings will be needed for every moving part and of course, no two will be alike. We are discussing with a few suppliers the best way to do this and create something that will be long lasting. Some of the gears have broken teeth so we are having to investigate locally if there is someone capable of repairing them on the shafts. Finally, there is the missing part of the winding mechanism originally located in the operator's hut that actually operates the whole thing. At the moment the driven shaft that originally disappeared into the mysterious depths of the hut has been cut short and had a half flanged wheel plonked on the end that I am not convinced would have been anything to do with the assembly originally. We need something that will allow the bridge to lift, and hold it there until it is wound down again. Eventually we'll need to build the hut too.

Lots of the engineering team are also driver's and guards on the narrow gauge railway too, this summer nearly every hour we have had to give has been thrown at that. Hopefully we can make some more progress over the winter as that operation slows down.

 

Thanks Ricky for posting those details. It will be fantastic if the bridge can be made to lift again.
Well Done to the whole team!

 

Can someone please explain for the uninitiated what the lift bridge is all about? Was it always there or did it come from somewhere else? What will it lift above?

 

http://heritage-centre.co.uk/in-the-press/stephenson-lift-bridge/




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An early Christmas present for the Quarry Bottom Railway!

The Heritage Centre has been very fortunate to take delivery of a pair of 2 foot gauge passenger carriages from the Statfold Barn Railway. These were previously used on Statfold's 'Garden Railway' and their incredibly generous donation will allow the Quarry Bottom Railway to have some resilience in it's coach fleet as well as allowing the railway to provide covered accommodation for the first time.

There's some work to do to make them ready for use at Mountsorrel, they will need brakes fitting throughout and the couplings will need to be made compatible with the exiting stock. Hopefully work will start on them once we've finished the winter tasks on the locomotives and Quarryman's coaches.

 

That's going to be interesting, given the curvature on parts of the line!

 

The gardne railway at Sttfold had some pretty sharp curves, so I'm sure all will be well

 

Definately! Although on the positive side we'll be giving modelers some precedent with bogies coaches on train set curves

I think it looks slightly worse than it is. In reality they are not much longer (maybe a 1/4 again?) than the Ex-RNAD quarryman coaches. With the wheelbase and the wheels being as small as they are I hope they will be kinder to the track in the long run than the 4 wheelers. The other positive is that the effective pivot points are a lot further outboard than on the quarryman's coaches. One of the trickiest obstacles to overcome to bring those into service was the amount of overhand the original couplings had on the sharp curve leading up to the platform.

 

It was a welcome surprise when I got sent an email sent to me showing the photos last week...

When I was at Statfold last year I was struck (not literally thankfully ) by the design of the carriages and though they would be very appropriate for the narrow gauge railway, given the short wheelbase of the bogies in relation to the extreme curves on our line! How ironic that less than a year later, they're now at Mountsorrel!
Looking forward to seeing them. If things are open I should have a chance to get down next week, as term ends on my university course tomorrow, so I'll be back in Leicestershire this weekend...

 

Their Winter Newsletter has now been published on the Website...
http://heritage-centre.co.uk/newsletters/christmas-2023/

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The Great Central is now advertising the return of steam to the Mountsorrel Branch in May and June:

https://www.gcrailway.co.uk/whatson2024/

I'll be very interested in what the arrangements are to cover the running. Do the GC have any operational tank locos on site at the moment?