With Nottingham Transport Heritage Centre now closed until 2024 (3rd January) here’s a quick progress report as we reach the end of another busy year at Ruddington’s popular railway.
Firstly, Great Central Railway (Nottingham) (GCRN) reports that all the main building work on its new carriage shed here in Ruddington is now complete. Not only will this substantial new structure protect four, 1950s-built carriages from the elements and damage, but also the planned flat floor means it will be suitable for indoor events, and there is also a small workshop.
This floor will be laid in early 2024. At the last count GCRN had also raised £8,500 towards the installation of the roller shutter door and electrics, meaning there’s £6,500 still left to find for this. The link to donate to their Carriage Shed Appeal is >>HERE<<.
Whilst it’s over a year since the new bridge over the A60 was lowered into place (below) as part of the long term ‘Reunification Project‘, preparations are now underway to re-lay the railway track across it.
Also, a significant milestone has been achieved to round off 2023 – reaching £2 million in the bank, ready to spend on building the ‘Factory Flyover’. This follows the signing of a key ‘memorandum of understanding’ between GCR PLC and GCR (N) on joint working towards ‘Reunification’ – to create together an eighteen mile heritage railway between Ruddington and Leicester North through the beautiful Nottinghamshire & Leicestershire Countryside via Loughborough. It’s hoped this will focus minds on finally enabling ‘big trains’ to restart running passenger services from Ruddington – something we haven’t enjoyed here since just before the COVID-19 ‘lockdown’.
Meantime, donations continue to be welcomed via www.gcrailway.co.uk/unify where there’s also more information about the ‘Reunification Project’ and all the work being carried out.
You can watch Tom Ingall’s latest YouTube video about it below.
