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This could have just been history, but this is now a reality as the double track has been re-laid at the Great Central Railway. The completion of the double track, brings the dreams of those visionary enthusiasts, who met in 1969 a step closer. Their aim was to provide a setting in which steam locomotives could operate on a main line under realistic conditions.
Here we see the newly restored Great Central Railway built GCR class '04' now numbered as British Railways 63601. The restoration of this locomotive (part of the National Collection) was paid for by the readers of 'Steam Railway' magazine, who together with Main Line Steam Trust raised £75,000. It is seen at Loughborough Central Station with the wooden bodied traveling post office carriages. The Great Central Railway is one of the few places having the facility to demonstrate the exchange of mail from a moving train, a sight no longer seen on the railways. Such demonstrations often feature at gala weekends.
One of those early pioneers was Graham Oliver, who served as Chief Executive of Great Central Railway PLC 1995-2005.
Main
Line Steam Trust Limited |
Imagine
standing on a bridge, hearing the distant whistle of an express train
heading towards you, you see the smoke in the distance. It gets closer,
you can make out the lamp code, two lamps, one above each buffer - its
an express passenger train, you recognise the loco and then whoosh its
gone below, leaving just a trail of smoke.
Just
as it disappears, another approaches from the other direction, this time
it's an express goods.
