Does this GCR station have a future?

Welcome to part 4 of my series looking at the Reunification of the Great Central Railway.

We've looked at the Great Central Railway Heritage Railway at Loughborough, the missing section and bridging the gap. Then we looked at the Stanford viaduct outside Loughborough on the Great Central Railway Nottingham - the northern section.

The restoration continues and we make out way to the first town that the line passed through - East Leake. We find the site of the former station, which closed in 1969. A road underneath the line, with access via a staircase, which we find bricked up. The island platform is still in situ on the trackbed, but the line hasn't seen running trains since 2020.

Although the heritage railway has run trains through here for a number of years, the East Leake GCR has not actually served as a station. The infrastructure no longer exists. Ideally the station would be reopened when the line is restored, however this does seem straightforward.

Will this station ever see passengers again?


This is now the Great Central Railway (Nottingham) section of the line. This part of the line has not seen trains since 2020, however remained active as a freight line until it was taken on by the Ruddington based heritage railway - NTHC - Nottingham Transport Heritage Centre.
Great Central Mainline was built as the London Extension of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire railway. Opening in 1899, it was designed to be as straight as possible with as little gradient as possible. Speed was the aim and express trains travelled between London Marylebone, Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester. It was the last UK mainline to be built before HS1 over a century later. It thrived initially, however with a lack of upkeep, neglect and dwindling usage, it was mothballed during the great railway rationalisation of Dr Beeching in the 1960s - known as the Beeching Axe.

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