The Great Central Railway
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ก.ย. 2024
- A look at Rothley and Loughborough Central stations, trains, and The Great Central Railway today with brief history of the line from Manchester to London.
This is not a train spotter’s film reciting engine numbers and wheel formations, but rather getting a feel of the atmosphere of the railway as a passenger, and contrasting the comfort of then to the airline style utilitarian feel of trains today.
A terrific dare i say amature documentary ,enjoyed every minute thanks you two.
Thank you.
the sounds , the smell of these times that is something you can never forget, today's generation have no idea, great video, well done
Thank you. It is wonderful to be appreciated. Peter Darley.
At 5:07 … those canopy’s look amazing.
The thing that really annoys me is that the Government closed the Great Central line in the 1960's, which was a purpose-built high speed north-south route, and sold off most of it quickly and cheaply to farmers and the like. Wind the clock forward 50 years and take a look at the compulsory purchase costs for the land needed to build 'HS2'. Surely the sensible thing to do would have been to close the GC, but retain the wayleave. I'd love to be able to do a cost-benefit analysis on how much this would have amounted to as opposed to the £billions being spent on 'HS2' today !
Truth is, we've never really had much in the way of foresight in the UK. Never is this more true than with the railways.
Yes, this line should never have been closed - it is the ideal line for HS2. It was also madness that the original Snow Hill station in Birmingham was closed and demolished.
It wouldn't surprise me if after all the money that's been spent conducting feasibility studies for HS2, the current government end up axing the entire project in a few years time, when it becomes apparent that costs are spiralling out of control - which they are beginning to now (in 2020).
First stage HS2 merelyreplecates the GC/GWR joint line to Brum - why is that not being pursued? Notopened till 1905, its built to proper Trunk standards. Guess every govt is composed of short termed car addicts
Nice video I came here back in April first time in years forgot how great it is.
Preserved railways like the 'Great Central' are very fine, and we should be eternally grateful for all the hard work involved, but they would never be as clean when they were part of BR.
Nicely filmed, brings back happy memories of visits to GCR.
Thank You. Glad you enjoyed it. Peter Darley
@@sallydarley9812 I don't like the GCR at all and am pleased to see any part of the line demolished and returned to another use.
I am pleased to note that you agree my comment is true. The overall bullet point is that Beeching wasn't the culprit. However, Macmillan's decision to appoint MARPLES as Minister of Transport was reckless, as it played into the hands of MARPLES self- interest. The running down of the GC to justify closure showed lack of foresight, ignorance of the forward looking engineering planned and performed by the original founders as well as the ultimately, necessary need for UK taxpayers to be required to stump up vast amounts of their 'hard earned' to finance HS2 replacement towards eventual completion or costly abandonment. MARPLES didn't pay his dues into the pot that he was greedily supped from. NOW, WE ALL HAVE TO PAY!
Apart from Marylebone, Leicester and Nottingham - nearly all stations were built like Rothley with an island platform and access from a bridge. In other words cheaply. I have a lot of time for the GCR extension but realistically it was a bit of a vanity project up against the LNWR, Midland GNR and south of Rugby didn’t serve anywhere of any population size. The writing was on the wall when ownership transferred from ER to MR in 1958 and you can see the number of closed local stations occurring from 1958 onwards. - before Beeching report was published. As to HS2 - it’s another fantasy project for those wanting to bring back the mainline Railway except it doesn’t go anywhere near Birmingham, it wouldn’t be fast enough (90-100mph) and most of the infrastructure would need replacing. It’s a lovely restored heritage railway and let’s leave it that way.
I quite agree, leave as a beautiful railway not modern utilitarianism.
I hope you British railfans realize how much steam running you can enjoy. In the U.S., steam trains might run once a month on a typical museum railway, or less. Mainline steam excursions are even rarer. Part of the issue is that when North American fires were dropped, most of the remaining locos were very large. Even a old branchline loco would be larger than an A-4 and maybe even one of your 9F 2-10-0 locos. Keeping such an engine running is costly in fuel, oil, time and occasional out-shopping for things like boiler repair.
The music isn't 'Puffin' Billy', It's Coronation Scot by Vivian Ellis. As this train ran from London Euston to Glasgow Central, it has little to do with the Great Central. If the music sounds familiar to an older generation, it was used as the theme music to the radio detective series, 'Paul Temple'.
Hello and thanks for your comments on the video. The credits near the end show the music in the order of inclusion on the video. Coronation Scott by Vivian Ellis is shown first ( please excuse the spelling mistake - the two rs )followed by Puffin’ Billy by Edward White.
I made this video back in 2012 and I can see now that there are inaccuracies in its content. The use of Coronation Scott music was to create an atmosphere only. You are quite right that the train of this name had nothing to do with the GCR.
I also admit that some of the interior images of the compartments are from the Severn Valley Railway and should not be on this film.
Peter Darley 2017
You people in Leics and Notts have kept the Great Central I've and with double track and Quad track at Swithland the Mountsorrel branch and the new bridge at Loughborough for a run of over 18 miles by steam wonderful.
The line that never closed lives on as the GCR at Loughborough
thanks
Manchester Central was NOT owned by the Midland Railway. It was the property of the Cheshire Lines Railway, later known as the Cheshire Lines Committee. This was the joint property of the Great Central, Great Northern and Midland railways and the Great Central was undoubtedly the most active partner, actually providing the locomotives for all the internal workings. The other two partners only powered their own trains.
Thank you for this comment. I stand corrected and should have studied this more. - Peter Darley
12:02 Irish Rail old steam generating van???
0230 ON SUNDAY 4 SET 1966, BLACK 5 44858 WAS THE LAST STEAM LOCO ON THE GREAT CENTRAL, PAUSING AT WOODFORD HALSE WHERE EX STEAM LOCO CREWS DOFFED THEIR CAPS AND SANG AULD LANG SYNNE ALONG WITH THE LAST PASSENGERS. 44858 CAME OFF JUST SOUTH ST BANBURY JUNCTION WHERE IT WORKED ON AWHILE AND D5000 TOOK OVER ON THIS THE VERY LAST TRAIN ON THE SOUTHERN END OF THE G C R, THE OVERNIGHT TRAIN FROM NOTTINGHAM VICTORIA TO MARYLEBONE AND LAST TRAIN THRUGH FROM NOTTINGHSM VICTORIA TO MARYLEBONE, WHERE WE ARRIVED SHORLY AFTER 05 00. 44858 IS AT CARNFORTH UNRESTORED.
If your going to do a history of the GCR don't leave out the part east from Sheffield. The GCR built Immingham docks, a major port today. It also biult Cleethorpes promanade and turned a small village into a seaside resort.All totally ignored in this film.
Shame you show a picture of Quainton Road station when talking about Finchley Road. There was a station at West Hampstead, the remains of which can still be seen.
Hey where did the bicycle ramp go???.
This video is poorly put together for the most part. It should have had a brief history at he beginning with a route map and some still photographs and then concentrated on the preserved GCR.
This route was closed by Dr Beeching who performed under the control of Ernest Marples (Minister of Transport), a probable user of prostitutes, according to Lord Denning whilst conducting investigation into ' The Profumo Affair,.' Also a partner of Marples Ridgeway, who were making money building roads. MARPLES was sought after by HMRC regarding tax affairs thought to go back about 30 years. He fled the UK in 1975 rather than risk imprisonment. Being the last mainline built from Northern England, the founders had the foresight to build more gradual 2 mile minimum radius curves (instead of 1 mile minimum). This enabled higher speeds and a link up with HS1 to the continent. The founders had seen The Great Central Railway as being very much HS2. The replacement planned was initially said to cost £32 billion, however, this has now been revised as having roughly doubled so far. I take to take this opportunity to thank taxpayers for generously financing the wasteful sabotage and expensive substitution of this national treasure. I really enjoyed my trips from Manchester Piccadilly to Sheffield Victoria many years ago and continue to enjoy the preserved section of THE GREAT CENTRAL RAILWAY!
JOHN WALTON The simple fact was that the railway never had sufficient passenger volume and with the collapse in freight traffic in the late 50s it was an unnecessary duplication of the a Midland Main Line. It was essentially as it was in 1910, it could never have been justified to upgrade track and signals to cut operating costs, whilst doing the Midland Main Line that had better potential for passenger traffic. Also its absurd to say that it could be HS2 substitute, first because the closure and the opening of HS2 are events seperated by over 60 years, no more able to be predicted than its closure by its original builders and secondly because it does not resolve the key requirement of HS2, which is to resolve the capacity volumes on the WCML in particular the Coventry Birmingham spur, the Great Central would be like widening the M1 between Leicester and Nottingham to relieve traffic congestion at Spaghetti Junction in Birmingham. Sure hindsight is a wonderful thing, but in 1960 the GCL was all but derelict and even today in the heat of a railway revival would struggle to attract viable passenger numbers.
John, Graham Ariss said it all. Beeching was correct to recommend closure. The line should have been more thoroughly demolished to prevent all these preservation and relinking attempts.
You sound like you'd scrap everything on the planet.
Speak for the blind people
“All Change!” to cars, motorways, out-of-town shopping malls, supermarkets, hypermarkets, gardening centres, gentrification, yuppies, privatized utilities of water gas and electricity, the over-use of the word “like”, street markets that “like” are more like tourist attractions, uniformity of town high streets with the same chain store names, speculative gated housing schemes for the wealthy, more golf courses, more car parks, ‘industrial estates’ , small businesses, roundabouts, hire-purchase but “like” higher rents, houses unaffordable to buy for most, agri-business instead of farms, privatized prisons, battery chickens, more scams, journalists who are prostituted minds, child prostitutes who are forced to be , and , above all, the despoilation and steady destruction of the natural environment and pollution , and alienation ; and “there is no such thing as a society, only individuals”.....