David Clarke Railway Trust donates £5,000 to track appeal!

The David Clarke Railway Trust, setup in honour of former Great Central Railway (GCR) President and local businessman David Clarke, has very generously boosted the Mountsorrel Railway's track appeal with a donation of £5,000!

David was an important figure around Mountsorrel. His family owned the former box factory on Linkfield Road and David himself setup the successful Gray Paul Ferrari dealership at Loughborough, which later moved to Nottingham. He later went on to become GCR President, spearheading the GCR's project to establish Swithland sidings and reinstate the double track between Loughborough and Rothley, helping to realise the dream of early GCR preservation pioneers of preserving a section of double track main line railway as a working linear museum.

David was well known in Mountsorrel and we are honoured to accept this generous donation from the trust set up in his name.

In addition to this the project has seen a flood of donations pour into our track appeal since the beginning of June, helping to swell the fund by an additional £3,500! Together with existing funds we have now raised over £10,000! This sets us well on our way to raising the £30-40,000 we need to secure the one and a quarter miles of track needed to complete the project.

Donations are also being received for the railbus restoration, allowing restoration work to finally get under way.

Thanks to all of you who have donated to the project so far. If you haven't donated yet please do so as soon as you can. The rising price of metal means we have to act quickly if we are to secure the track we need at a reasonable price.

You can donate to the project in several ways. You could sponsor a sleeper at £15 per sleeper or a length of rail at £180 per length. Alternatively you may wish to donate an amount each month by regular standing order; by clicking the link you will see the project has incentives for those donating large amounts by standing order.

Whatever you can afford will be greatly appreciated, and every penny of every pound donated goes straight towards securing the track we need.

And if you are a UK taxpayer please download and fill in our Gift Aid form and send with your donation. This enables us to claim tax back from the government, boosting your donation still further.

Please send your donation cheque, made payable to "RVP Ltd" with "Mountsorrel Railway" written on the back, to 112 Balmoral Road, Mountsorrel, Loughborough LE12 7EW.

With your help we can bring the railway back to Mountsorrel! Thank you.