The Great Central Railway Station With A Difference

Welcome to part 5 of my series looking at the Reunification of the Great Central Railway.

We've making our way north along what will be the reunified railway. We're still in the village of East Leake, where we've already seen the old original GCR station site. However there was one more station in East Leake.

In 1910, so just over a decade after the GCR opened, a new stop was added - Rushcliffe Halt. Not your typical GCR design. No island platform and signature buildings. It's a simple flanking platform setup, with a siding and minimal wooden buildings. There was a small station building up at road level that we will see the foundations of, a toilet and a footbridge.

We're also seeing the nearby Gypsum works, which kept freight traffic on this line until only recently. Plaster board is made here I believe.

Just beyong the station is a former signal box. The more modern, is 1940s can be considered modern, Hotchley Hill Signal Box is currently ungoing restoration after years of neglect and vandalism. This was built dueing the LNER period. When the line is open, this will be the only passing loop on the northern half, so the signal box will play a key role.

Link to Hotchley Hill Signal Box video -    • Reviving Hotchley Hill signalbox on t...  

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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