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Mountsorrel Heritage Centre

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by Johann Marsbar, Sep 21, 2018.

  1. Hando

    Hando New Member

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    I'll be down cleaning this Saturday as I was last Sunday. Things will be a bit "spookier" than usual, although I doubt we'll have a skeleton crew!
     
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  2. Johann Marsbar

    Johann Marsbar Well-Known Member

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    An appeal has now been launched to provide for an extension to the workshop building to cater for the two narrow-gauge locomotives on site rather than the glorified domestic garage arrangement that houses them at the present!
    It will also provide additional space for other possible visiting NG locos and full details are shown on the "Donate" page on the Heritage Centre website...
    http://heritage-centre.co.uk/donate/
     
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  3. Johann Marsbar

    Johann Marsbar Well-Known Member

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    In case you were wondering why nothing has run directly onto the Mountsorrel Branch from the GCR this year, this explanation has appeared on the latest Heritage Centre newsletter.....

    Many of you will be wondering why trains have not run on the branch line. In April the point that leads into the sand drag at Swithland was damaged. The point motor needed to be repaired plus the point blades, tie bars, etc. Due to lock-down, the Great Central Railway P-way (Permanent Way) team had a backlog of work and the repairs were consequently delayed. We are confident that, barring another mishap, visitors will see trains on the branch in the New Year.


    There is quite a lot in the latest newsletter, particularly about the lift bridge project, which will presumably appear on the Centre website in the next week or so.
     
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  4. Johann Marsbar

    Johann Marsbar Well-Known Member

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    Apparently the appeal to raise money for the workshop extension to house the narrow gauge locomotives has raised just over 50% of the money required - not bad in the space of less than 2 weeks, given the time of year....
     
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  5. Flying Phil

    Flying Phil Part of the furniture

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    Good news about the fundraising. Looking forward to riding along the branch line in the New Year.
     
  6. Hando

    Hando New Member

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    The plan is that once the extension to the Workshop is completed, the former NG shed will become a fuel store, with the flammables being kept safely in isolation.

    As for the Stephenson's Lift Bridge project, it's on the back burner at the minute as things are very quickly progressing with the workshop extension. Work has not entirely ceased on the lift bridge, as the concrete base for the bridge is now partially in place.
     
    Last edited: Dec 27, 2021
  7. Johann Marsbar

    Johann Marsbar Well-Known Member

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  8. Flying Phil

    Flying Phil Part of the furniture

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    Thanks for posting Johann - the workshop extension will be very useful in the future. The repairs to the catch point seem quite vague though ..."in the New Year" covers 12 months! I hope the branch line is open in the near future ie by Easter at least....
     
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  9. Johann Marsbar

    Johann Marsbar Well-Known Member

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    I did notice yesterday that one of the GCR Events for the year is a "Branchline & Railcar" one, which I think takes place in September (10/11th?), so hopefully that means they will have a branchline to run on by then, if not before!

    The totaliser for the Narrow Gauge extension to the Workshop looked as though it was standing at £9K yesterday, so only another £2500 in Public donations + £2500 match funding to go......
     
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  10. Flying Phil

    Flying Phil Part of the furniture

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    Good news about the fundraising. Looking forward to travelling on the branchline!
     
  11. Johann Marsbar

    Johann Marsbar Well-Known Member

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    A new E-Newsletter arrived this morning giving an update on the progress with fundraising for the narrow gauge shed/workshop (amongst other things) and I've copied the relevant sections below verbatim.... (though the links in blue don't work...)

    We are aiming to offer passenger rides around our narrow gauge railway circuit in the quarry bottom area of the site. Feedback from visitors suggests this would be a very popular addition.
    We need to complete four stages before we are able to give passenger rides on our narrow gauge railway:

    1. Extend our workshop building to provide good covered storage, maintenance and service facilities for our narrow gauge (NG) locos and to allow for the possibility of housing a small NG steam loco. This is the subject of our current appeal.
    2. Track alterations to the NG layout to reduce the severity of the curve radiuses and to create a platform at the rear of the Peace Garden to allow passengers to board and leave the trains.
    3. Creation of two purpose built open coaches to carry passengers.
    4. Administrative and safety case paperwork to be able to move passengers.
    As mentioned in our Christmas newsletter, tenders for the extension have been obtained and we are looking at just over £14,000 for the building work. The electrics, building control, alarm modifications, concrete and track for the floor are all in addition to this, but we are covering these extra costs from our own reserves, which just leaves the £14k construction cost to fund.
    Thank you very much indeed to everyone who has donated to our appeal. A fantastic £9,610 has been raised! A generous long time supporter is doubling all donations received, but only until the end of February. This means there is still a potential £2,195 in match funding available if we can just raise the remaining £2,195 needed to release it all.

    Obviously we are keen to benefit from all of our match funder’s generosity and raise the remainder quickly. If you haven’t already donated but would like to, please consider doing so before the match funding offer expires. Our public appeal to visitors can be found on the Donate page of the website which details the many ways you can make donations to the Heritage Centre or you can donate via our GoFundMe page at https://gofund.me/6dd414a5.

    The planning application appeared on the Charnwood Borough website last week so that is now being processed and the NG track layout is currently being altered to allow for the extension and to ease the curvature on the circuit as mentioned above.
    They are hoping to get the outstanding £2195 raised over the next month as attention will then be shifting to the Lift Bridge project, the concrete pad for erection of the bridge now apparently being in situ.
     
  12. Flying Phil

    Flying Phil Part of the furniture

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    The Heritage Centre is a true gem....and it is getting even better - "Well Done to all concerned".
     
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  13. Musket The Dog

    Musket The Dog New Member

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    I can't really add much more detail than Johann has already shared but I can add some visualisation to the words. These were taken last Saturday and I think since then the weekday teams have been in and have continued to widen the cutting in the land reclaimed from the peace garden's flower beds. As well as moving the narrow gauge track over the fence has been re-laid to create more space inside the curve for a replacement flower bed to make up for what has been lost for the workshop expansion. The edge of the foundation for the new workshop comes to just inside the existing straight section, you can just make out the timber stake marking it at the bottom of the first picture. The space for the lift bridge has been cast in just at the end of that siding stub. I wondered if anyone thought when it was dismantled at Frog Island, that it might ever be reconnected to the mainline again? (eventually)

    20220122_124809.jpg

    20220122_134834_crop.jpg
     
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  14. Johann Marsbar

    Johann Marsbar Well-Known Member

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    This update to the appeal to erect a workshop extension to house the narrow gauge locos has been posted on their Facebook page.....

    Just a quick update to keep you all up to speed with our Workshop Appeal fund raising total. This is the first stage in our project to be able to run passenger train rides around our narrow gauge track.
    As at 2:30pm today we've raised a fantastic £13,354! A generous project supporter has been match funding all your donations to help reach our £14,000 target, but the match funding offer ends on 28th February. This means that if we can just raise a further £328 within the next 7 days, that will release the remaining £328 still available in match funding and the workshop extension will be fully funded!

    ...so they are looking to raise the remaining £328 in the next week, if possible !
     
  15. Johann Marsbar

    Johann Marsbar Well-Known Member

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    Planning permission for the workshop extension was apparently granted by Charnwood Borough yesterday afternoon. In addition, the fundraising appeal was succesful as well and the money coming in was able to cover the cost increases to the work as well that have taken place since the appeal was launched - something that will be hitting a lot of preservation projects at this time.
    Hopefully the building work will be complete by early May.
     
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  16. Flying Phil

    Flying Phil Part of the furniture

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    Well Done on the fundraising - looking forward to the construction updates.
     
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  17. Johann Marsbar

    Johann Marsbar Well-Known Member

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    There is apparently a lot more work being done on-site at the moment to the narrow-gauge track circuit which will become the passenger carrying line, including clearing a space for a station platform.
    I'm hoping to get up there and see progress myself on one of the days of the GCR "Railways at Work" event in just over a fortnights time.
     
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  18. Hando

    Hando New Member

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    We're doing a lot of work on the realignment of the narrow gauge track at the moment, so the line will probably be a lot less wiggly in places than it used to once it's done.
    As for the platform it won't be quite as heavily engineered as that at Nunckley Hill halt, and will instead be at rail-level, with the surface using the same material that we have laid along the paths.
    I'll take some pictures when I'm next down to show you all what we've done so far...
     
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  19. Johann Marsbar

    Johann Marsbar Well-Known Member

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    Lots of work underway on the narrow gauge line when I called in there yesterday and the utility relocation ready for the NG extension to the workshop will start during the coming week.
    The concrete pad and securing ponts for the uprights of the Stephenson Lift Bridge are now in place and the new timbers have been ordered....

    DSCF6082a.JPG
     
  20. Hando

    Hando New Member

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    Nice to have seen you yesterday, hope Steve gave you a good tour!
     

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