For many years the Great Central Railway has cherished a vision.
We want to bring together the two halves of the former main line
railway we preserve to create an exciting whole.
We foresee an 18 mile railway where the biggest steam
locomotives can operate and look at home. It will stretch across
the East Midlands between Nottingham and Leicester and bring
economic benefit.
A glance on any map shows you the problem. Five hundred metres
of the line are missing at Loughborough. It was taken away by
British Rail in the 1970s.
Putting it back involves building a new embankment, placing a
bridge over a road and then another bridge across the Midland Main
Line railway to London.
After years of hard work we are ready to begin work on the most
complex but exciting part - the railway bridge.
This is a real project and it is happening. We have the best
possible partner; Network Rail. Their planning, construction and
project management experts are already working on the design of the
scheme.
We have to raise one million pounds, to put two previously
recovered bridge decks in place by the end of 2015.
If we fail, when the Midland Main Line railway is electrified in
a few years time the project will become prohibitively expensive
and the vision will be lost forever.
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