Bridge that Gap: Great Central Railway News

Now on the GCR website - Tender time for the Factory Flyover! - Great Central Railway

 

The "Urban Viaduct" I think is effectively going to be three parts. From the two track canal bridge, there will be approx 60m of embankment then a small single track bridge next to the Combined Sewer Outflow to allow maintenance vehicle access. Then it is the single track precast sections of the Urban Viaduct (About 250m), steadily rising to meet the Railway Terrace crossing bridge. This bridge is the highest point to allow for the large tip lorries to get to the recycling centre.
There is also a small section of North embankment to be rebuilt, to join the MML bridge to the existing embankment and Chord line track.
The existing Engine Shed will need to be relocated as the twin tracks to the Canal Bridge are on the original track formation - which is roads 1 and 2 in the shed. That is still three to five years away though.

 

That is a good video update and the projected build time is better than I thought it would be....complete by Christmas next year!

 

For those of us who refuse to watch videos: What is it that will be complete by Christmas next? Just the car park viaduct and the bridge over the road (which is what they are currently accumulating money for), or something else as well?

Noel

 

Yes. Exactly that. The most difficult bit in terms of logistics. The "Urban Viaduct", which has no direct third party involvement, would be a separate and final phase.

 

Yes, for those of us quietly browsing at work, a video is a complete pain...

 

With the northern embankment slotted in at some point as well

 

At the same time, it seems.

 

Possibly funding noel for the eventual transfer rebuilding of the current G.C.R. Loughborough M.P.D. is this to be done though as the 7th step after the urban viaduct between railway terrace bridge and grand Union canal bridge is completed?
Or the 6th step before the urban viaduct is constructed I always thought the down alignment past the Loughborough M.P.D. can be used is that still possible?

 

Is it so urgent to know what's happening now that you can't wait just a few hours? Trust me, you won't miss the reunited railway reopening

 

I don't read np as much out of work. If I'm with family, I'm not going to be watching a video which takes my focus away from them.

 

One can't speed-read a video; one has to sit there while it plods along. That's why I will almost never watch a video, but restrict myself to text.

Noel

 

It's lerss that eleven minutes long and very informative. Is your life so busy that you can't spare that short period of time to watch it?

 

We all have different means that we prefer to take on information - I'm in the camp that much prefers a simple headline, rather than having to be taken deeper to get anything.

 

I largely agree re videos...Some of the interminatble how to videos that could be a one-liner....
but it is an informative video without tons of padding

 

Yes.

Noel

 

The down alignment is road 1 of the present shed. There was a loop or siding alongside, however to go round the shed you'd have to slew a bit further still. If you think about what the shed would lose in that scenario (i.e. road access for volunteers, heavy machinery and coal deliveries, public access, the myriad of storage containers, etc.), it was always a non-starter. Well, assuming you want to do the job properly and not hobble the operation of the unified railway for the next 30+ years.

Where the shed goes... I don't think anybody knows yet. Certainly, lots of ideas have been thrown around. Time will tell.

 

Quite often, especially when the video is leisurely, I set the playback speed to 1.7x.

 

With YouTube you can often open up the transcript at the bottom and skim through that. Though it's done with voice recognition software and has a habit of getting words wrong and picking up every umm and err that gets muttered.