The Great Central Railway (UK) Major Reunification (Project) Update 2024

Trains Magazine Steam & Preservation
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The dream to unify two halves of the Great Central Railway (In the UK) is slowly becoming a reality. A lot has happened since. I will update everyone on here as to what has and will happen with the Reunification project on the Great Central Railway.

A bit of history first of this Main Line to London.

The Great Central Main Line was the last built main line to London before High Speed Rail (HS1 and 2). Opened in 1899, the Great Central went from Sheffield (South Yorkshire) through Nottingham, Leicester, Rugby and Aylesbury all the way to London Marylebone Station (Central Lo

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I’ve done the Great Central about ten years ago- time to do it again!

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Yeah, go for it. The Reunification Project is still on going and isn’t complete yet. But 3 main bridges have now been upgraded already.#### Also LNER Peppercorn Class A1 No. 60163 Tornado (below) is currently at the Great Central Railway for maintenance.

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Work on it is still being done in the Engine Shed at Loughborough. But will be running soon on the Great Central. Full 2024 Events calander at the GCR is on the main GCR website. Plus you can now buy ticket online on that website too. Enjoy :slight_smile:

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The Great Central was England’s equivalent of the Erie/EL. The early abandonment during the Beeching regime on British Rail was not surprising.

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Great Central is a great name.

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I agree. It wasn’t a suprise. But the Great Central was really well designed and made, as a Main Line. It did have that advantage over other older Main Lines.

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Yeap.

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My apologies. In orginal reply I said three main bridges upgrades had been completed in the Reunification Project. This is a mistake. It’s Two main bridges have acutally been upgraded (The orginal GCR bridge over the canal and the A60 bridge). And the one main bridge over the Midland Main Line is new and has been built from scratch. Anyways I think the Tornado Steam train is still at Loughborough locomotive shed but I’m not sure now.

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