Mountsorrel Parish Council and the Harry Hames Cottage Charity come to the Aid of the Mountsorrel Railway

Mountsorrel Railway community volunteers are pleased to announce that they have raised their phase 3 target of £26,000 thanks to the generosity of the public, a generous donation of £8,000 from Mountsorrel Parish Council and £5,000 from the Harry Hames Cottage Charity, which is administered by Rothley Parish Council.

With track laid along 40% of the route the volunteers have been working hard to find a source for the remaining rail required to reach Mountsorrel. Due to the high price of metal this task was proving to be quite a challenge!

At the end of May the project was able to agree a very good price to potentially obtain all the rail needed to lay track to the end of the line at Mountsorrel. However, there was a considerable funding shortfall and to make matters worse, the deal had to be completed by the end of June otherwise the remaining rail would be scrapped.

"We knew that we would be unlikely to find such a good deal again, so we took the decision to increase our fund raising target to £26,000 and do everything thing we possibly could to secure all the rail we needed." said volunteer project leader Steve Cramp. "It's certainly been a nail biting few weeks! We knew that achieving our target by the end of June was going to be tough, but the generosity of the public has astounded us again, then for Mountsorrel Parish Council and the Harry Hames charity to help us in such a generous way really is the icing on the cake. We would like to say a huge thanks to them and to everyone else who has donated!"

The final push for track laying to Mountsorrel will commence in August and the project hopes to reach the end of the line during February next year. "Of course, once track reaches Mountsorrel there is still much work to do before the line can open throughout for historical recreations." continued Steve. "The new track will need to be ballasted and packed but all being well the line should open later next year for historical recreations and educational trips. Beyond this we hope to build a small platform halt at Bond Lane to allow visitors to Loughborough's Great Central Railway to ride to Mountsorrel by heritage passenger train and link up with Stonehurst Family Farm via their existing tractor trailer rides. This will require the installation of check rails on the sharp curves near to Wood Lane, which still requires additional funding."

Track is being laid by community volunteers entirely by hand using the traditional methods of the navvies who built the original railway. If you would like to volunteer to help lay track then please get in touch by email with project leader Steve Cramp steve@mountsorrelrailway.org.uk The next few months look to be an exciting time for the project, please come and volunteer to help bring the Mountsorrel Railway back to life!