‘The Story of the Great Central Railway’

This DVD programme traces the history of the Great Central Railway and more closely at the preserved section of the GCR with pre-end of BR operation archive films by Richard Willis and Mike Clemens.

We look at how the line from Loughborough Central to Leicester North was secured for preservation in the late 1960s and 1970s and the trials and tribulations in funding the section which was under threat of being completely torn up by BR.

We examine the achievement of laying double track between Loughborough and Rothley as part of the injection of funds from the David Clarke Trust and a look at each station along the route with archive and contemporary footage.

Locomotives arriving at the line from the earliest times with Nos. 71000, 45231, 5224, GC 506, 63601 and visitors such as Stirling Single No.1, 61306 and other gala engines hired in are all seen operating. The superb galas such as the ‘Last Hurrah’, ‘Railways at Work’ and the other galas are covered highlighting the Great Central’s headline of –  ‘Recreating the Experience’.

Altogether, a review of this main line heritage project in its 50th year of operation.

75 mins duration