A few Questions about visiting the Great Central Railway

[jonhewes]

I'm thinking of introducing my girlfriend to trains by taking her to the Great Central Railway, as Loughborough is only a 90 minute train ride away from Lincoln.

I've a few questions to ask though, I was under the impression that it ran to Nottingham...... but the timetables show it only goes to Leicester. Is this in development?

Loughborough central is where the trains depart from, according to the GCR website. Is this station GCR only, or partially Network Rail? Will my train from Lincoln arrive here, or will it arrive at another station?

With regads to engine sheds, will they allow you to go round them? Which stop will I need to get off at to do so? Also.... how much is this gonna cost me.

One last question, has anyone any idea what will be running tomorrow. Will there be much in the way of steam? Any pacific class locos running?

Sorry for getting carried away, haven't seen very much operational steam in quite a while.....

Going to get a lot of Photting done

Cheers

Jon

[richsoft]

The GCR is in two distinct pieces at the moment, the main one runs between Loughborough to Leicester, and there is development at Nottingham. I not sure how far the Nottingham end goes though. I believe that the ultimate aim is to link the two up.

Loughborough GCR station is about 15-20 minutes walk away from the Nation Rail Station. It's really easy to walk there though, but I would recommend looking on the map on their website, http://www.gcrailway.co.uk, or use Streetmap, just to make sure you know where your going!

The engine sheds are at Loughborough Central, and when I went up about a month or so ago, you could walk right up to the shed, but not go in them. You get quite a good view though.

If you are going on the train, I was told by the ticket collector that it is much cheaper to get a All-In-One ticket to Loughborough (and travel on the GCR) and it works out cheaper than buying a rail ticket and a ticket for the GCR. It costs £11 for an all-day ticket on the GCR, according to their website (I went on a gala day so it was more expensive).

Hope this helps

Cheers

Richard

PS

Just found the loco roster on their website:
http://www.gcrailway.co.uk/roster.htm

This will tell you whats running:

4141 - GWR Large Prairie
63601 - GCR Class 8K

[salopiangrowler]

the nottingham end is actually ruddington the bridge at loughboro' is going to be gapped when the moneys available meaning the current shed at l'boro will have to be moved. Oh a good luck it'd be interesting to introduce your own girlfriend to trains there arent many of them around.

[chriscooper]

Trains from Ruddington run down to Rushcliff Halt (a ccouple of miles down the GC main line) normally, using push pull trains, but on Diesel running days top and tailed trains and their DMU do run down to Loughbrough, stopping at the back of the Brush works. Sadly the link up is likely to be some time, the major expenditure being just one part of the problems. Current plans are for a separate station with a link to the main line platforms, as well as signalling and run round loops allowing trains to run to Loughbrough all the time. As well as the railway their is also a collection of buses and also rolling stock undergroing restoration. More details can be found at http://www.nthc.co.uk/