The Mountsorrel Railway

End of 2011 news

2011-12-21T05:09:00.000-08:00

Project volunteers build an accommodation crossing!

Track now extends along the branch for over 500m (550 yards) from the junction with the GCR. This takes track past the point where a private farm track crosses the railway, meaning that volunteers have needed to construct an accommodation crossing, so that the farmer can access his fields beyond the railway. An accommodation crossing differs from a level crossing in that it is provided only for private use as opposed to a public highway to cross. Nevertheless, construction standards and rules for use remain pretty much the same.

Our volunteer team were aided by student volunteers from Loughborough University who came along to lend a hand.

Work progressed rapidly and by mid December the crossing was complete. Safety signage will be erected in the New Year. Thanks to material donations by Murco Petroleum, Lafarge, local people and loan of tools from within our volunteer team, the crossing was constructed for less than £250. We think that the end result looks very good indeed!

Local groups raise money for the project

A local group who runs vintage tea parties with a 1940s theme, in aid of local charities, very kindly chose the Mountsorrel Railway as the good cause for their Christmas event. The party was held at Mountsorrel Memorial Hall and was very well attended indeed. There was live entertainment, vintage and craft stalls, scrumptious cakes and of course plenty of tea! The event raised a remarkable £250 for the project.

Members of a railway heritage group, who meet once a month at Quorn for slide and film shows, have also kindly raised £300 for the project.

Both donations are very gratefully received and will be used to help fund materials for phase 3 track laying, which when complete should bring track to within view of the bridge at Wood Lane.

Wood Lane to Bond Lane cutting progress

Work continues to progress in the cutting between Wood Lane and Bond Lane. A new track side drainpipe is being laid to replace the original which had collapsed. Pipe materials have been donated by Lafarge, the GCR and Cleanaway and the digger work itself is being sponsored by Lafarge. We are very grateful for this assistance which has saved the project over £10,000. The pipe run is now 60% complete and should be finished early next year with base ballast laying to follow.

The Wood Lane end of the cutting is already complete and ready for ballast to be laid.

At Bond Lane the pipe run can be seen on the left side of the cutting. It is hoped to build the Mountsorrel halt platform on the right side of the cutting in the foreground of this view.

Merry Christmas!

Project volunteers would like to thank you for your support over this past year and to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Online vote gives boost for Mountsorrel Railway

2011-11-29T03:40:00.001-08:00

The Mountsorrel Railway Project is to receive a valuable cash boost after being successful in winning an online election arranged by NatWest CommunityForce.

Nationally over 5,800 community projects registered to take part and these were then voted for by the public, either online or by telephone, in an election that was sub-divided into regional competitions. Over 366,000 votes were cast nationally. To achieve success the Mountsorrel Railway had to compete with 45 other projects in the Burton/Loughborough area.

The prize for the railway is an award of £6,275 which is expected to be presented early in the new year. Project leader Steve Cramp was delighted with this news:

"Not only does this allow our track-laying to continue unhindered but it raises the profile of the project both locally and further afield. Like so many community projects, we often find it an uphill battle to gain publicity and this kind of recognition is invaluable for raising the public's awareness of us. What makes the award so special to us is that it was voted for by the public, it's good to know that so many share our vision of bringing what we hope will be a much valued educational and recreational resource to our community."

Not only did the project win the area vote, but also came within the top 1% of all projects nationally! Continued Steve:

"To have come so high in the voting at a national level is almost overwhelming. We don't have the marketing and PR might of some of the larger organisations we were up against, so to know we have such a high level of public support has really give our volunteers a boost."

The aim of the project is to relay just over a mile of railway from just south of Swithland Reservoir to Bond Lane, Mountsorrel. When completed the branch line would become an additional attraction for the Great Central Railway, which would operate trains from Rothley along the branch to Mountsorrel. The restored railway will also form a working linear museum allowing forgotten scenes from our industrial past to be recreated for today's generations to experience and learn from. So far over 500 metres of track has been re-laid. The grant from NatWest CommunityForce will now allow track-laying to progress rapidly towards Wood Lane, Mountsorrel.

Phase 2 track laying underway

2011-11-20T13:02:00.001-08:00

Community volunteers have started laying track along phase 2 of the Mountsorrel Railway trackbed. Phase 2 involves the laying of an additional 450 metres of track length and will extend the line to almost half a mile in length.

Progress has been rapid with up to 80m of track laid by hand in a single morning. The railway is being restored using the traditional skills of the original navvies who built the railway 115 years ago. Great care is being taken to use historically correct materials as well.

Phase 2 will be constructed in two halves. The first half is almost complete and further materials will be sourced for the second half early in the new year.

History is made as first steam train runs on restored Mountsorrel Railway

2011-11-20T12:48:00.000-08:00

On November 17th 2011 LMS "Jinty", BR no. 47406, became the first steam loco to run on the GCR branch of the Mountsorrel Railway in over 50 years!

The branch took part in a Russ Hillier private photo charter that involved the Jinty making several runs along the branch with a selection of wagons, including the Mountsorrel Granite Company wagons, which were restored by project volunteers last year.

We are pleased to say that the newly laid track performed well, much to the delight of the hordes of photographers that had gathered to capture this historic event. When complete the restored branch line will create many opportunities for historical recreations, allowing the story of our industrial past to be told for today's generations to experience and learn from.

NatWest - nearly your last chance to vote!

2011-10-20T08:32:00.000-07:00

The Mountsorrel Railway is no longer coming first in the NatWest online poll to win £6,000. Another project has overtaken us. So there's a danger we're not going to receive the money, which would be vital for making further progress with completing the railway.

Voting closes this Monday midday. Please vote here: http://communityforce.natwest.com/project/2350

If you want to be convinced further about whether to vote, Kev, the dad of Tom, one of our volunteers, wrote an incredible email about it, requesting the support of his colleagues and friends. If you have time please do something similar so that those receiving the email know what we are about and trying to achieve.

Here is Kev's email:

Please can I ask for a few minutes of your time today, either now or during a break-time… :) My son Tom (14yr) has been a volunteer for the past 18 months (he gives up every Saturday and when called upon or needs must, week nights too, instead of sitting on his PS3... :) on restoration of the “Mountsorrel Railway Branch Line…”. A small group of community volunteers are heading this project and are fund raising all by their own means/time and determination….. Once complete the branch line will be part of the famous “ Loughborough – Leicester steam railway”.. which is also known for being in the film “Buster” played by Phil Collins and not so long ago “TOP GEAR” the railway challenge but to name a few…… As you all know fund raising or getting any form of volunteer is a hard task… Tom has got so much out of the project. He has learnt skills and had opportunities that there is rarely a chance for young people to experience these days. On the few occasions I have visited the project myself I have found the community spirit, determination a camaraderie between the volunteers almost moving. It is remarkable what they have managed to achieve week after week.So…

This good heritage restoration group have entered a NATWEST competition to get a £6k grant… as you can see by the below they are currently in the lead to get this grant… to make sure they do get it we are all doing everything possible to help…. Please Volunteer 2/3 mins of your time today and VOTE for them, it would mean a great deal to all and also to Tom too...

OH yeah… please pass this on to as many contacts in your email address book as possible that you feel would volunteer 2/3 mins of their time for a fantastic project that our children and next generations will enjoy...

Oh Yeah Again…. If any of you have spare time and do fancy getting involved and want to say that you helped build this section of the railway please get in contact with smcavalon@yahoo.co.uk

NatWest competition update - please vote!

2011-10-11T06:32:00.000-07:00

Thanks to many votes from our supporters, we're in an impressive leading position to claim one of the £6,000 NatWest CommunityForce grants. But if votes don't keep coming in we might miss out. Please vote by following the instructions below, especially if you've tried to vote beforehand and had problems with the process.

NatWest have devised a voting process that ensures fairness by asking voters to register their email address first. If you have been trying to vote for us but without success please follow these simply instructions. Please note that at times the NatWest website can be very slow. Do be patient.

First register your email address at the following link:https://communityforce.natwest.com/user/register

You will receive a confirmation email with a link you have to click on to confirm your registration.

You can then login using the details you have just entered at the following link:https://communityforce.natwest.com/user/login

Once logged in, go to the NatWest Mountsorrel Railway page:http://communityforce.natwest.com/project/2350

Click on the check box to confirm the terms and conditions and then vote for us. Please make sure the vote count goes up by one to ensure your vote has been counted.

The prize money would go towards the £25,000 currently being raised for rail and sleepers to extend the branch to almost a mile long, nearly all the way to Mountsorrel. Winning the £6,000 would make a huge contribution. But we need as many people as possible to vote for us, so please don’t wait, and place your vote now! And please get as many friends and family to also vote for our project. Thank you.

Vote to help the Mountsorrel Railway win £6,000!

2011-09-26T06:51:00.000-07:00

With a few clicks of your mouse, you can help the Mountsorrel Railway win £6,000!

Please vote online for the Mountsorrel Railway to get a NatWest CommunityForce grant of £6,000. The money would go towards the £25,000 currently being raised for rail and sleepers to extend the branch to almost a mile long, nearly all the way to Mountsorrel. Children and adults would benefit greatly from the project by learning about and being involved with this former industrial railway line, which was once crucial to the local community.

Winning the £6,000 would make a huge contribution to fundraising for the project. But competition for the grants is huge, and we’ll need as many people as possible to vote for us. So please don’t wait! Vote now! And please get as many as possible of your friends and family to vote for us too!

Voting for the Mountsorrel branch will only take you a few clicks. To vote, and for more information, please go here: http://communityforce.natwest.com/project/2350

Thank you

September 2011 project update

2011-09-20T06:26:00.000-07:00

Volunteers have been busy in recent weeks working at several locations along the railway.

At Bond Lane our volunteer bridge team have completed the rebuilding of the end bridge wall. This wall had collapsed and had to be entirely rebuilt using the original stones. Unfortunately some of the stones were stolen meaning that the original capping stones for the top row were lost. Replacements were kindly provided by Mountsorrel quarry.

Work has since moved on to completing the repointing of the south parapet wall. This is almost complete and should be finished this coming Saturday. The restored bridge looks fantastic and our volunteer stonemasons have done a brilliant job.

Focus will then turn to the north side wall, which has a challenging area to repair near to its western end, before the rest of the wall is repointed. On October 8th a team of volunteer students will be visiting from Loughborough University to help with this work.

Community volunteers have also started the long job of laying some of the hedgerows alongside the railway. This is a very skilled task and we are fortunate to have a professional tree surgeon volunteering his time to help lead the work. 50 years of neglect have left the hedgerows weak and in poor condition in places. Laying the hedges will help them to recover and fill out again.

Our Tuesday group have been in action lifting and packing the newly laid track. This is in order to bring it up to operational standard so that it is available for the GCR to run historical recreations at upcoming galas.

At Wood Lane a soft area in the trackbed has been dug out and new material added to firm up the foundation. New drainage is also being added at this location. We hope to be able to ballast through the Wood Lane bridge before winter sets in.

We have volunteer sessions each Tuesday from 10am until 2pm and on Saturdays from 9am until 2pm. If you would like to volunteer, even if only every now and again, you can be sure of a warm welcome. We have families as well as individuals who give their time to help out. If you would like to learn some new skills, make some new friends and do something good to help our community, please get in touch with project leader Steve Cramp: steve@mountsorrelrailway.org.uk

Nicky Morgan MP visits Mountsorrel Railway

2011-08-19T05:31:00.000-07:00

Nicky Morgan, local MP for Loughborough and surrounding villages, visited the Mountsorrel Railway recently to see the progress so far.

Nicky met volunteers and Steve Cramp, project coordinator, and said she was "amazed and very impressed" at how much we have achieved. Nicky said on Twitter: "Great to visit volunteers working so hard on the Mountsorrel Railway Project this morning".

Nicky Morgan MP: 4th from left, first row, on photo

£5,000 from Mountsorrel Parish Council!

2011-07-18T11:50:00.000-07:00

Mountsorrel Parish Council has donated a very generous £5,000 to the Mountsorrel Railway.

We are very grateful to Mountsorrel Parish Council for their help and support. Councillor Mick Lemon commented "The Mountsorrel Railway project is an inspiration to everyone who lives in Mountsorrel and goes to show what is possible when the community works together."

Project volunteers had been working hard to match fund a donation of £6,000 that had been pledged by a member of the public, providing that we could match it before the end of September. So the Parish Council's donation, together with our existing fundraising, takes us well past the match funding required and therefore releases the additional £6,000 as well!

This is great news for the volunteers who are working to preserve Mountsorrel's industrial heritage. Over the last four years local people have volunteered in their spare time to help create a linear museum which connects to Loughborough's Great Central Railway (GCR). The project aims to run educational and public recreations of our industrial past and also for the GCR to run heritage passenger trains connecting with local tourist attractions at Mountsorrel, including Stonehurst Family Farm. The Mountsorrel Railway, when completed, will hopefully help secure and boost local jobs.

Project leader Steve Cramp commented "We have been overwhelmed by the support we have received from the public. It was only in May that we launched our £20,000 fund raising appeal for the next section of track laying along the branch. We never thought that we would reach our target in only six weeks! The project relies on donations from the public to bring this ambitious project to reality and it's so good to see the community getting behind us like this. The Parish Council's donation really is the icing on the cake and their kind words of support are very much appreciated indeed".

All this means that the current phase of track laying is now completely funded and, once materials are sourced, we can lay the next 450 metres of track, giving almost half a mile of running line along the railway.

Fundraising immediately turns towards the remainder of the railway. Phase 3 will extend track for a further 500m almost to Wood Lane, and the final phase 4 will be the remaining 500m to the end of the line at Bond Lane. Both these phases will cost £25,000 each, so we still have some way to go to reach Mountsorrel!

Please send your donations to 112 Balmoral Road, Mountsorrel, Loughborough, LE12 7EW. The project is a registered charity so if you are a UK taxpayer please down load a Gift Aid form. If you would like to get involved and volunteer yourself please contact project leader Steve Cramp.

July project news

2011-07-11T05:24:00.000-07:00

Track laying

Phase 1 track laying is now complete and the track slewed, lifted and packed ready to receive trains. The line is looking very good indeed.

The video below shows a freight train running onto the branch as part of the Great Central Railway's Quorn turntable project.

Our focus is now turning towards phase 2 track laying, which will see track laid for a further 450m along the branch. This will give almost half a mile of running line. Please see the details below about our fundraising appeal and help us to push on towards Mountsorrel.

Bond Lane bridge restoration

Our intrepid bridge restoration team has been working extremely hard on restoring the Bond Lane bridge. What a battle this has been though. Back in April we had some of the hand dressed original stones stolen, which our volunteers had restored ready for reconstruction. Since then we have had sand stolen from the site and in June we had two rows of newly laid stones smashed off the bridge and stolen.

We have been meeting almost weekly with the local police to discuss the problem. They suggested erecting a steel security fence. The cost of this though was beyond our means but thanks to the loan of fencing from Mountsorrel quarry we were able to secure the site. Sadly though this didn't last longer than four days before the fence itself was stolen!

The bridge restoration really has been a battle and at times soul destroying for the volunteers involved, especially our younger volunteers who struggle to understand why people would destroy the work they have done. Nevertheless, not to be beaten they have pushed on and the wall is very nearly finished. Work has progressed even further since the picture below was taken and the wall is now almost ready for the capping stones to be added to the top.

If you see any suspicious behaviour around the railway bridge at Bond Lane, please contact Leicestershire police on 0116 2222222.

Fundraising

A supporter has pledged a very kind and generous £6,000 donation to the project, providing that we can match it before the end of September! Our volunteers have been working very hard with fundraising initiatives to try to raise the matching £6,000 we need.

Many donations have been coming in from the public. Thank you very much indeed if you have already donated!

One of our volunteers Janet Preston ran a project fundraising garden party at the end of June, which raised a remarkable £600. On August 7th John and Jenny Hardy are having an "open shed" event to raise funds for the project. In their back garden stands what must be one of the largest garden sheds I have ever seen. It houses a collection of historical farm and industrial tools which John has collected over the last 30 years. An old Ferguson tractor is its centre piece, all carefully laid out in a way that puts most museums to shame.

John's shed is quite renowned locally and has featured on TV. He often hosts visits from engineering colleges. A flyer for John and Jenny's fundraising event is shown below. Please come along if you can and help support the project.

You can help us directly to raise the match funding we need by sending your donation cheque made payable to "DCRT" (David Clarke Railway Trust), with "Mountsorrel Railway" on the back, to 112 Balmoral Road, Mountsorrel, Loughborough, LE12 7EW. If you are a UK taxpayer please download a gift aid form and send it with your donation.

If we can match the £6,000 pledged we will have all the funds required for phase 2 track laying, so please help us not to miss out on this generous offer.

Free exhibition at Mountsorrel Library

2011-06-17T00:10:00.000-07:00

A free exhibition about the Mountsorrel Railway project is being held at Mountsorrel Library. The exhibition will show the history of this industrial steam line, and the massive steps the local community has taken to recreate it.

The exhibition will be in Mountsorrel Library from Tuesday 28th June until Friday 15th July.

Directions to Mountsorrel Library
Library opening times
RSVP on Facebook

For more information contact George Overton, project volunteer.

Thank you.

Fundraising progress update

2011-06-10T06:40:00.000-07:00

We have had a remarkable response to our fundraising appeal to purchase track materials for the next 450 metres of track laying.

In the last two weeks alone over £5,000 has been donated by the public. The fund is now almost half way to the £20,000 target we need. We are immensely grateful to all of you who have donated. Without your support it simply would not be possible to take the railway back to Mountsorrel and realise all the benefits it could bring to the community.

We are almost entirely dependent on public donations and corporate sponsorship, as it is very difficult for us to secure grant funding. We do as much of the work as possible ourselves with our team of community volunteers. This is in order to greatly reduce the overall cost of the project, which will be less than 10% of what the cost would have been - had we have taken the approach of most projects where the work is done by grant funded contractors with the community often excluded from being actively involved. It seems ironic that in this age of cuts, and pressure to save money, we can't attract grant funding!

Please continue to donate and help us to push on towards Mountsorrel. See the track appeal donation form for more information, or you can donate online, or please consider a standing order donation to the appeal.

Thank you.

Recent press coverage

2011-05-27T06:03:00.000-07:00

The recent track laying, and first train on the Mountsorrel Railway, has attracted some good press coverage of the project:

Heritage Railway magazine "Great Central now has a branch!"
Leicester Mercury "First train runs on restored track"

The project also featured in last week's Loughborough Echo.

The support is much appreciated.

Track laying diary part 3

2011-05-20T05:55:00.000-07:00

May 7th 2011

The Great Central Railway (GCR) had very kindly agreed to lay top ballast along the branch during the week commencing May 16th. This meant that the pressure was on as we only had two weeks left to lay the final three panels. The team had a big push and managed to lay two additional panels on the 7th. Both were slewed into position, plated and keyed up. We also dragged out two more pairs of rails from the stack and set them up ready for cutting and drilling by the Tuesday group. The GCR main line had now well and truly disappeared out of sight behind us and we could look out from the branch and see the GCR viaducts stretching across Swithland reservoir.

The GCR's signalling team have also installed the arm on the branch exit signal.

May 14th 2011

Our Tuesday group of volunteers had successfully cut and drilled the rails so we were ready to lay the final panel. Sleepers were laid out and positioned ready to receive the rails which we soon had in position, slewed and ready to receive ballast trains. The head of steel (HOS) is only three panels from the end of the long curve and the farm track level crossing is only another couple of panels beyond that.

We have rail for a further 450m of track and once donations have been received to fund the sleepers to go with it, the intention is to bring the rail to the branch and unload it at the end of the laid track. From here it will be dragged out in pairs using a tractor, right along the long straight. This should greatly increase track laying speed as all the rail will be in the correct place as we come to lay it. This won't happen though until we have raised the funds for the sleepers and other fittings, so please donate to our appeal fund to help make this happen.

The team spent the rest of the day packing the full length of all our new track so that it was able to take the ballast trains, which were due onto the branch during the following week. This was an important job because if sleepers are not supported properly the weight of the train can literally snap them in two!

May 16th 2011 - history is made!

This was an important day in local history as at 1:40pm the first train in 52 years ventured tentatively out of the loop at Swithland Sidings and onto the branch line. The historical event was captured on film:

This would be the first of several trains to run over the following three days as 200 tonnes of ballast were dropped and spread over our newly laid track. By the end of Wednesday the branch was starting to look like a proper railway.

The project would like to say a big thank you to all the community volunteers who have worked on the project, the public whose donations have allowed us to get this far, and to the GCR for their assistance with material moves, loan of tools and the ballast laying.

Over the coming weeks our volunteers will be aligning the track to its final position, leaving this section of the branch ready to receive heritage trains. The initial intention is for the GCR to run demonstration freight trains using the restored replica Mountsorrel Granite Company wagons, at future galas.

Our thoughts are now turning to relaying the rest of the branch to Mountsorrel and unlocking the full potential of the branch as both a linear museum and a heritage passenger railway linking Mountsorrel to the Great Central! This can only happen with your donations so please consider donating to our appeal fund.

There are several ways to donate:

Please donate online
Click here to download a standing order form
Send your cheque, made out to "David Clarke Railway Trust" with "Mountsorrel Railway" written on the back, to:

Mountsorrel Railway
112 Balmoral Road
Mountsorrel
Loughborough
LE12 7EW

Many thanks for your support

Track laying diary part 2

2011-05-16T05:30:00.000-07:00

April 9th 2011

One new panel was laid. This may not sound like much compared to the previous week's four, but we had so many other tasks to undertake as well. We had to move and lay out all the sleepers for the new panel and also key up all one side of the four panels laid last week, both which took quite a lot of time and effort. We also had to move some of the ballast bed to support the new panel as the track is moving slightly off centre to where the ballast was laid. This is because since the ballast bed was laid in November 2009, we have been able to achieve a better track line to ensure that we have a constant radius for the full length of this long curve.

The head of steel (HOS) is also becoming some considerable distance from the rail stack, so the opportunity was taken to use two rail trolleys to move the rails. The trolleys would become a great asset to us over the coming weeks.

The Tuesday group had taken on the challenge of cutting and drilling rails ready for Saturday's laying sessions.

April 16th 2011

A further panel of track was laid this week leaving only four more to go during our current track laying phase. The Tuesday group spent the day laying out sleepers for the next panel.

April 23rd 2011

It was Easter weekend with many volunteers away making the best of the good weather. Our numbers weren't high enough this week to move rail but the GCR had brought a wagon to the branch with 40 more sleepers. The opportunity was taken to unload the wagon and construct a new sleeper stack near to the HOS.

April 30th 2011

With volunteer numbers restored a further panel was laid, plated up, slewed into position and keyed up. The GCR was almost out of sight in the distance behind us.

Third and final part of this diary to follow later this week.

Mountsorrel Railway track laying is underway!

2011-05-12T05:08:00.000-07:00

It's been a very busy past couple of months on the project, and we are proud to announce that track now extends for almost 300 metres along the branch! This is a sixth of the total distance to the end of the line and has been a remarkable achievement for our band of volunteers who had very little track laying experience when we started.

Over the next week or so there will be a short series of website updates detailing our progress and how it happened. Excitingly we still have enough rail available to the project to lay a further 450m of track! What we don't have though is sleepers and other fittings to go with it, which we need to raise a further £16,000 to secure. Our attention now turns to fundraising in earnest to pay for the extra materials we need. If we can lay the rest of the rail we have, then we won't be far short of having track laid along half of the branch, well over half a mile of running line!

Please consider donating to our appeal fund to help track extend further. You can donate online, or send your cheque made out to the David Clarke Railway Trust, with "Mountsorrel Railway" written on the back of your cheque, to 112 Balmoral Road, Mountsorrel, Loughborough, LE12 7EW. If you are a UK taxpayer please download our gift aid form and send it with your donation - that way the tax man will top up your donation by an additional 25%.

March 3rd 2011

The Great Central Railway brings a rail wagon to the branch with enough rails to lay 200m of track. Some of the rail is of poor quality and needs to be sorted through to work out what rails can be reused. The train also contains two wagons loaded with 210 chaired timber sleepers.

March 5th 2011

Project volunteers set to work unloading the sleepers from the wagons. These were carefully unloaded by hand one at a time. Fortunately we have a good strong team and we managed to unload all 210 in only a day! Not only this but the first hundred sleepers were laid out along the branch. The picture shows sleepers laid to the side of the branch, these were to form the base of our rail stacks.

March 12th 2011

During the week GCR staff had removed our two empty sleeper wagons and moved the rail wagon up to the end of the existing branch track. At this location though we couldn't easily unload rail because the branch signal was in the way. Our priority was to lay a further panel of track so the rail wagon could be brought forward and unloaded properly. Selecting two good rails wasn't as easy as it sounds as we had a mix of different lengths and some of the rail ends needed re-cutting and drilling.

An unloading ramp was built at the side of the wagon using old sleepers, and rails were slowly unloaded one at a time until we found an ideal pair. We ended up having to unload 12 rails before the ideal pair were found. These all had to be dragged forward onto our new rail stack. Hard work but we got there in the end.

As soon as we had a good pair of rails these were lifted by hand using rail tongs into the sleeper chairs. By the end of the session we had laid the first panel of this track laying phase!

All work was undertaken under the skilful supervision of our track laying expert Tim Oaks.

March 19th 2011

Our Tuesday group had taken on the task of sorting components and getting everything ready for the Saturday track laying sessions, which greatly speeded our progress.

With the rail wagon now moved forward and level with the stack it was far easier and quicker to unload the rails. These were carefully slid off the wagon one at a time. If the ends were good they were dragged forward onto the "good" stack otherwise they were left on the "need some work" stack.

Being on a curve at this point, ideally we were looking for pairs of rails where the inside rail was four inches shorter than the outside. That way we could lay them without cutting and redrilling.

By the end of the session we had laid our second panel.

March 26th 2011

The rest of the rail was unloaded from the wagon meaning that the empty rail wagon could be moved back to allow our second track panel to be plated up and keyed. We spent some considerable time slewing the first two panels into the curve. This was made difficult by the track continuing to move where we didn't want it to!

April 2nd 2011

With all the rail unloaded, sorted and stacked, we had found enough rail of the correct lengths to lay more track. We had a strong team and pushed on to lay four additional panels during the day. This is some 240 feet of track! This used up all of the remaining sleepers we had laid out so far. The rail stack was getting further behind us as well, so it would be doubtful that we would be able to maintain this rate of progress as the head of steel progressed.

More details to follow in the next update!

BBC Radio Leicester coverage

2011-05-12T05:00:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week BBC Radio Leicester DJ Ben Jackson came to the trackbed to interview Mountsorrel Railway volunteer John Mace.

The interview was broadcast yesterday morning and is available on the BBC website for the coming week. Please click below and fast forward to 1 hour 33 minutes into the programme:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00ghncr

Bond Lane bridge restoration hit by stone theft

2011-04-07T08:51:00.000-07:00

We are unhappy to report that our volunteer work to restore the Bond Lane bridge has been hampered because of the theft of some of the bridge stones. The bridge is at the end of the section of the Mountsorrel Railway being restored.

The end section of the bridge wall was collapsing (see previous news update). Volunteers had numbered and labelled key stones so they could be cleaned and replaced in their original positions as the wall was rebuilt. Our aim was to maintain the original appearance of the wall almost exactly how it would have been when originally constructed.

The wall was carefully disassembled with hammers and chisels, and each stone carefully cleaned, before being stored nearby ready for reconstruction to commence. What makes the stones so special is that they were all hand dressed at the quarry over a hundred years ago. Finding new hand dressed stone is very difficult today: you can only normally find rough blasted stone which is not in keeping with the original look of the bridge. So you can see it was imperative to preserve all of the original stones.

Despite being stored in what we hoped would be a safe location, we were extremely disappointed to find that a significant number of the stones had been stolen. This included almost half the carefully numbered stones, making it impossible to rebuild the wall exactly how it would have been. Our volunteers were devastated by this, which we believe was most likely carried out by one or more local people. When you give your time freely to try to bring a useful and beneficial resource to the local community it is disappointing to see your efforts undone in this way.

Fortunately we discovered the theft early, before all the stones were taken. The person appeared to be returning each evening to take more stones, so luckily we were able to move the stones away for safe storage at one of our volunteer's houses. Not an easy task in itself as there were almost five tonnes of stones to move!

Not all is lost. The rebuilding of the bridge wall is a priority while we try to find suitable stones to replace the ones that were taken. The remaining stones are being returned to site for each work party and then removed again at the end of the day. This extra handling and transportation is hindering the bridge volunteers, but it has to be done.

The photo shows the bridge wall under reconstruction. The temporary fence in front is to protect members of the public from the works, and will be removed when the wall is completed.

On a brighter note we would like to say a special thanks to project sponsors Languard Vegetation Management of Husbands Bosworth, who have been back with us again to weedkill the trackbed base. Weed control over a mile and a quarter of railway would be a mammoth task to undertake ourselves, so we are immensely grateful to Languard for providing this work at no cost to the project. We would also like to thank Lafarge Ready Mix for donating the concrete pour for the new Bond Lane bridge wall foundations. Their support represents a significant saving for the project.

If your company might be able to help the project in any way please get in touch with Steve Cramp. We are always in need of many items both large and small for tasks that involve plant or other machinery. We would very much like to hear from you if you think you can help. Thank you.

Mountsorrel Railway volunteers start restoration of Bond Lane bridge

2011-02-04T05:57:00.000-08:00

Back in early 2009 we took on the restoration of the granite railway bridge at Wood Lane at the Mountsorrel end of the railway line. The bridge required sections of the parapet wall rebuilding and both road facing walls completely repointing. The distinct historical importance of the bridge made the restoration all the more difficult, with the need to reuse the original stones and to ensure that key stones all went back in exactly the right place.

The contractor quote for the work was just under £19,000, but our volunteers undertook the restoration ourselves, completing the work to a very high standard at a cost of only £120! This was made possible thanks to a donation from Mountsorrel Parish Council, Lafarge who supplied some of the materials, and several people who donated. The work took over 15 months to complete and many volunteers of all ages came from the community to help.

Last summer, vegetation clearance around the bridge at Bond Lane, at the end of the line, revealed the parapet walls to be in the same poor state of repair as the Wood Lane bridge we had just restored. It soon became clear we had another ambitious restoration on our hands! Our thanks go again to Mountsorrel Parish Council for sharing our desire to preserve Mountsorrel's heritage and making a further donation for the cost of tools. We are also grateful to Lafarge who have kindly agreed to provide the materials needed for the restoration.

Exploratory work started last October with help from Loughborough University students.

Work got underway properly in January with over 20 local volunteers descending on the bridge with hammers and chisels to remove the old mortar ready for repointing. Remarkably this extraordinary number of volunteers enabled the entire south side of the bridge to be chiselled out in only one day!

Our volunteer stonemason has already made a start on the repointing and the bridge is starting to return to its former glory.

Our next task is to take down the collapsing end wall, so that new foundations can be dug before the wall is rebuilt using the original stones.

This is an example of how community volunteers were able to come together with local industry and the council to preserve our heritage. The "Big Society" in action!

If you'd like to come and help with this work we have volunteer sessions each Tuesday and Saturday. Please get in touch with Steve Cramp for more details.

Come and see us on the weekend of 29th January

2011-01-21T05:00:00.000-08:00

At the forthcoming Great Central Railway winter steam gala, you'll be able to talk to Mountsorrel Railway volunteers and see photos of the project.

We'll be in the Rothley station waiting room, on the platform, on Saturday and Sunday 29-30 January. Please see the map below for directions.

Local artist John Cramp will be with us on the Saturday to talk about the limited edition watercolour painting which we are currently selling to raise funds for the tracklaying. Prints of the work will be on sale throughout the weekend, at prices to suit every pocket.

We look forward to seeing you there.

View Route of Mountsorrel Railway in a larger map

Mountsorrel Railway limited edition prints on sale

2010-11-10T04:36:00.000-08:00

A local artist has painted a superb watercolour scene of the Mountsorrel Railway. The painting is evocatively titled "The Way Forward" and shows sole surviving Mountsorrel Railway steam loco, Peckett 0-4-0 tank engine "Elizabeth", coming through the Wood Lane bridge with a rake of Mountsorrel granite wagons.

The painting gives an exciting insight into the historical recreations the restored branch line will be able to portray.

The artist has kindly allowed us to commission a run of limited edition prints of the painting, which we are selling with all proceeds going directly to the Mountsorrel Railway track appeal.

The prints are available in two sizes:

The first comes in a 20" x 16" mount for only £20. A frame can be supplied for an extra £7 if desired.
The second size comes in a 12" x 10" mount for £15 with a frame available for an extra £5 if desired.

If you are not local we can mail the prints to you, charging postage and packing at cost.

The limited edition run is of only 150 in each size. The larger prints will be available on the week beginning 15 November 2010, with the smaller size the following week. We have already taken many advance orders, so interest is high!

If you would like to see steam trains run along the Mountsorrel Railway and onto the Great Central Railway again, then please help the track appeal by buying a print.

For more details please e-mail direct the volunteer coordinating the Mountsorrel Railway project, Steve Cramp, at: steve@mountsorrelrailway.org.uk

Thank you

October update

2010-10-25T12:38:00.000-07:00

We had another cracking day on Saturday with over 25 volunteers attending the work party, including three Loughborough University students. Work was done to clear the line of sight to the signal at the Great Central Railway junction, as locos will approach the junction around a curve. As well as the clearance work a survey team of volunteers was also plotting a new curve alignment.

Watercolour prints to go on sale

Below is a low resolution version of a superb watercolour painted for the project by local artist John Cramp.

Appropriately entitled The Way Forward, the painting indicates what we are working towards, and also signifies that the painting's creation might hopefully help us to raise the funds to get there!

The painting shows Peckett 0-4-0 saddle tank engine Elizabeth, bringing her rake of Mountsorrel granite wagons through the Wood Lane bridge on their way to the Great Central Railway.

Elizabeth is the only steam loco to have worked on the Mountsorrel Railway that still survives. Currently under restoration at the Rutland Railway Museum by its owner, a local resident, we hope that Elizabeth will visit the restored branch line to recreate this scene.

We don't currently have a firm price for the prints as we are investigating what costs we will incur in creating them.

However, to give you some idea, we hope to offer the prints in up to three sizes, and priced appropriately so they are affordable by everyone.

Each print will be signed by the artist, and will be numbered as part of a limited edition run of 100 or less.

Each print would come with a mount and in a cellophane sleeve. If buyers want their print sent by post we can do this at an added cost. In addition to this we may also look at providing frames for an additional cost if people want this.

To register your interest for a print please e-mail George Overton.

Media coverage

The project featured on the BBC Radio Leicester breakfast show this morning and our third anniversary was mentioned in several news bulletins.

The four minute interview between DJ Ben Jackson and project coordinator Steve Cramp can be heard by going to the following page of the BBC iPlayer; the interview is just after the 41 minute mark.

Additionally the Loughborough Echo kindly continues to give the project excellent coverage most weeks.

Short survey online until 1st November

We'd like to know your thoughts about a handful of things to do with the Mountsorrel Railway project. It shouldn't take more than a minute for you to fill in this online survey. The survey closes Monday 1st November midnight GMT.

Please remember that at any time we're grateful for your thoughts and opinions about the work. To get in touch please e-mail George Overton.

Your support is much appreciated. Thank you

70 volunteers attend the project's third anniversary work party!

2010-10-06T05:09:00.000-07:00

The project's third anniversary was marked by a mammoth work party as we pushed forward with the many restoration tasks ahead of us. Our volunteer team was joined by 48 volunteers from Loughborough University making a record work party attendance of 70 volunteers!

This allowed us to undertake work in FIVE separate areas of the trackbed:

1. The restoration of the Bond Lane bridge was started.

2. A large group worked alongside our volunteers to tackle exploratory work on the trackbed drainage shafts near to Bond Lane.

3. Another group looked at ecology with a view to restarting the junior ecology sessions.

4. A fourth group were at work fencing our boundary near to Wood Lane.

5. The largest group, consisting of both students and our own volunteers, numbered 25 in total and tackled the annual line side clearance work near to the GCR junction.

It was fantastic to see the trackbed so alive with activity! The feedback from the students showed that they all thoroughly enjoyed the friendly atmosphere of the project and they were amazed by the progress made so far by our own volunteer team. Their help really showed just how much more can be achieved with a high number of volunteers. Our student volunteers allowed us to achieve five times as much as we would normally achieve in a single session and we would like to say a big thank you to both the students and Loughborough University for making the visit possible.

Loughborough University actively encourage their students to volunteer with local groups. Last year the university placed over 1,200 students with local community projects. The university sees voluntary work as an important personality and experience builder for their students. Volunteering says a lot about a person. Being willing to give your time freely to help others and the community around you is an important attribute when graduates are looking for work at the end of their degree. In the current limited job market employers are looking out for applicants that have that little extra. We are pleased to have been able to offer the students an interesting and enjoyable opportunity to volunteer.

Our hope now is that we can build a ongoing relationship with Loughborough University which will lead to regular help from their students.

If you would like to volunteer with the Mountsorrel Railway project please get in touch with Steve Cramp.

September Mountsorrel Railway news

2010-09-23T05:53:00.000-07:00

Our volunteers continue to make good progress:

Work on the access path for our proposed platform at Bond Lane has been completed for now. The path will be left to settle for a few months before the handrails and top surface is added. Also at Bond Lane volunteers have cleared and strimmed the roadside grass verges around the bridge and alongside the road to Cuffins Pit Lane some 70 metres away. This was done to tidy the area and to create a safe walkway for users of the Leicestershire Round footpath, which passes along Bond Lane at this point. Walkers can now walk along the grass verge instead of having to walk along the road itself.

Work is also underway at Bond Lane, courtesy of Mountsorrel quarry, to repair the drainage problem which is delaying the ballast laying along the final section of the trackbed. We hope to have this problem resolved within the next few weeks.

We are in discussion with Her Majesty's Railway Inspectorate with a view to gaining their approval for the design and location of the halt at Bond Lane. We hope to have some good news to report very soon.

Volunteers have also made a start on the annual program of strimming the trackbed shoulders and trimming back the hedgerows. Good progress has been made over the last two Saturdays with over 600m of trackbed trimmed and cleared. This work will continue throughout the autumn.

Our small team of volunteer surveyors have been at work plotting out the exact route of the track near to the junction with the Great Central Railway. This is in preparation for the next phase of track laying which will extend our length of track by an additional 100-200m depending on funds and availability of materials. Please donate to our track appeal! We hope that track laying will proceed towards the end of this year or early next.

Railbus work continues to make progress with the construction of a temporary frame which will allow the chassis to be wheeled out from under the body of the vehicle. The chassis will then be rolled into a near by work shop allowing work to progress on the mechanics overall of the vehicle. The railbus team are on the look out for volunteers with both welding and mechanical skills to help with the restoration work. If you have these skills and can spare a few hours of your time, please get in touch with the railbus project leader Stephen Mellor.

The Mountsorrel Railway project is pleased to be teaming up with Loughborough University to allow their students the chance to undertake a whole raft of different voluntary work with the project. These tasks could include the repair and repointing of the bridge at Bond Lane, vegetation maintenance, lineside fencing repairs, surveying and plotting out, platform construction, railbus restoration and various aspects of ecological work, including possibly the continuation of our junior ecology sessions with local children.

This coming weekend September 25th/26th, our volunteers will be taking the project stand to the annual Soar Valley Model Railway Club exhibition in Loughborough. If you are visiting the exhibition please drop by our stand to say hello.

We round the update off with an appeal for both additional volunteers and donations to the project. Our work can only continue with your support so please come and lend a hand or donate, all amounts large and small will be gratefully received and put to very good use. For further details please contact George Overton.

Mountsorrel Railway August news

2010-08-26T04:53:00.000-07:00

August has been another busy month on the project. Work has continued between Wood Lane and the end of the line at Bond Lane. The trackbed has been readied for ballast laying. The next task is to repair the drainage pipe that runs along the side of the cutting; once this is complete we will start to lay the ballast. We thank Lafarge Aggregates Community Fund for their continued support.

Volunteers have spent the last few weeks constructing a volunteer access path at Bond Lane. This path has been built with the correct gradient and dimensions to allow future wheelchair use and will be developed over time to become our public access to the Mountsorrel Halt platform, once the railway is completed and open to the public.

Sourcing of materials for construction of the platform has taken a big leap forward with the kind donation from Lafarge of enough granite blocks to construct a 45 metre long full height platform wall. This kind donation represents a massive saving on the construction cost of the platform. We still require a concrete pour and re-bar for the foundations, plus other materials. If your company would like to donate materials to help with the platform construction please get in touch.

Lesley Humphries ran her final junior ecology session in July; she has left us now to study at university. So far our attempts to find a volunteer to take over the ecology sessions has drawn a blank. If you or a friend, has an interest in ecology please get in touch with us. The junior ecology sessions can only continue with your support.

Thanks go to our weed killing sponsors Languard Vegetation Management of Husbands Bosworth, who have been back with us for a second session of weed management.

We have successfully completed our second year of wild flower planting sessions with local schools and young people groups. Since these sessions started last year over 400 children have been able to learn about ecology and the railway's history. If your school or group would be interested in taking part in next years sessions please get in touch.

Work continues to progress on the railbus restoration with the body now separated from the chassis. This is to allow work to commence on the mechanics whilst the body is overhauled at the same time.

The trackbed appeal is still in full swing. With ever increasing metal prices, we need your donations as soon as possible to secure the track we need, so please see our donations page for full details of how to donate.

Finally, an appeal for more volunteers. We currently have trackbed restoration work parties each Saturday, together with a railbus work parties also on Saturdays. We have also recently started a trackbed weekday work party, usually on Thursdays. So we should have an area of the project that interests you, regardless of whether you can only volunteer during the week or at weekends. Please try to find time to volunteer if you can. You'll always be assured of a very warm welcome! Thank you.

Next junior ecology session this Sunday July 11th at 2pm

2010-07-06T12:16:00.000-07:00

Lesley Humphries will be running the next of her junior ecology sessions along the Mountsorrel Railway trackbed this coming Sunday at 2pm. The theme of the session is how insects, birds and animals use camouflage to protect themselves from predators.

The sessions are open to children of all ages and their parents. The project makes no charge for attending these sessions.

If you would like to bring your children along, please contact Lesley for details. We need to know numbers attending so that we have enough materials for everyone.

Sadly Lesley is leaving us shortly to study for a teacher training degree. We would like to thank Lesley for all her hard work over the last ten months. Unless we can find a new volunteer to take over the ecology sessions we will be unable to continue running them and this session will be the last. If you are interested in volunteering to take over Lesley's role then please get in touch with Steve Cramp. The sessions can only continue with your help!

Volunteer help needed urgently!

2010-06-29T08:14:00.000-07:00

The project is expanding rapidly at the moment and, with so much going on with both the trackbed and the railbus, our volunteers are spread quite thinly.

As you will have seen from previous updates, Lafarge has agreed to donate and lay ballast for us to the end of the line at Bond Lane. This is obviously wonderful news but has to be done now because we have been told we will soon lose the use of the access track at Bond Lane, which we have been using to bring construction plant onto the trackbed. So the pressure is on to complete as much plant work as possible before we lose our plant access track. This means starting work on Mountsorrel platform, and the pedestrian access path leading to it, much sooner than we had anticipated.

You can see from the photo that good progress was made last Saturday clearing the side of the cutting so that the stumps can be removed and volunteers can start work on the access path.

This artist's impression shows what the halt will eventually look like. We are up against time though and we really need your volunteer help to get this work done now whilst we still can. If you can spare a few hours this Saturday, or a Saturday over the next few weeks, then please let us know. We are also looking to run weekday work parties so if you could be available on a weekday please let us know also. All you need to be able to do is put a branch on a bonfire or hammer a nail, so no prior experience is necessary. If you are able bodied we have a task for you to do! We need your support now at this critical time so please get in touch. Thank you.

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

2010-06-18T07:45:00.000-07:00

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.

Project volunteers start railbus restoration!

2010-06-08T06:10:00.000-07:00

Visitors to the Great Central Railway (GCR) in recent years may have noticed the rather forlorn frame of a railway vehicle languishing at the back of Loughborough loco shed. This is a 1958 built AC railbus now owned by the David Clark Railway Trust. The railbuses were built to carry passengers on short branch lines where passenger numbers didn't justify the cost of running a steam service. They were small single carriage vehicles just over half the length of a standard railway carriage yet still carried up to 47 passengers. With their own diesel engine they were extremely versatile and cheap to operate. Sadly they weren't able to save most of the branch lines they were built to serve, and as the Beeching axe closed some of the branch lines the vehicles were soon out of work after only a few years in service.

One of the aims of the Mountsorrel Railway project is not only to utilise the branch line for historical recreations, and to show how an industrial branch line would have interacted with a double track mainline railway, but we also hope for the GCR to run a passenger link along the branch to the nearby Stonehurst Farm attraction at Mountsorrel. The railbus would make an ideal vehicle for running that service, particular at quieter times of the year when passenger numbers may not cover the cost of running a steam service. Being able to run the railbus would allow us to operate trains along the branch on many more weekends than would otherwise be economically possible. The railbus would also offer excellent all-round views of the scenic branch line.

The other benefit of using the railbus is that they were designed to pick up passengers from almost anywhere, almost like a road bus. A full size platform is not required due to the railbus's vacuum operated fold down steps, which can be extended from underneath the vehicle allowing it to operate alongside either a full height normal platform or a simple almost ground level wooden structure. The obvious cost savings of not having to construct a full height platform at Bond Lane are immense.

With all this in mind, project volunteers have started to look at restoring the railbus for use on the branch line and on the GCR in general. The railbus has had some restoration work done on it in recent years, but only a little. A lot of work, both mechanically and structurally, is required to bring her back to operational use.

Running the railbus would allow the project to recreate yet another part of history, this time from the 1950s.

We have already built a strong team of volunteers to work on the vehicle, but we still need more help. If you have mechanical or steel welding skills, that would be great, but don't worry if not: there's still much to do for everyone. If you would like to help out with the railbus restoration please get in touch with Steve Cramp.

Funds for the railbus's restoration are also required. A fund exists within the David Clarke Railway Trust specifically for the railbus. If you would like to donate to support the railbus's restoration, please send your cheque made payable to "DCRT", with "Railbus" written on the back, to 112 Balmoral Road, Mountsorrel, Loughborough LE12 7EW. Thank you.

Mountsorrel Railway June news

2010-06-08T06:03:00.000-07:00

Phase two ballast laying preparation underway

Hot on the heels of our recent track laying, we're pleased to announce that phase two trackbed preparation and ballast laying is now underway!

This work should see ballast laid over the final 600m of trackbed all the way to the end of the branch line at Bond Lane. We're very grateful to Lafarge Aggregates Mountsorrel Quarry community fund for supporting this work, which we hope will be completed in July.

Once complete the full length of the trackbed will be ballasted and awaiting track. Please see our track appeal for details of how to donate to help us secure the track we need to complete the project.

Wood Lane bridge restoration complete

15 months of hard work came to an end last Saturday with the completion of the restoration of the Mountsorrel Railway bridge at the top of Wood Lane! When we started there were some who questioned whether we had taken on a "bridge too far" with the challenge of restoring the bridge, let alone produce a finished result that did justice to such a significant and architecturally important part of our local heritage. We're pleased to say the restoration has been completed to a very high standard indeed. Both the original fabric and appearance of the bridge have been restored to its former glory.

Restoring the bridge involved the complete rebuilding of a section of the road side parapet wall using the original carefully restored stones, and the repointing of the road-facing sides of the structure. The work has only been possible thanks to over 30 of our volunteers who've given their time to work on the bridge restoration over the last 15 months. In particular we must thank our volunteer stonemasons who've overseen the restoration and helped to ensure completion of the work to such a high standard.

The entire restoration has been achieved at a cost of only a few hundred pounds, thanks to Lafarge Aggregates, Mountsorrel Parish Council and members of the public who have sponsored the restoration work. The restoration shows what the community, local business and the Parish Council can achieve when we work together to preserve our heritage for years to come.

Project hosts Scout, Guide and school visits

Last year the project ran a series of visits from local groups and schools, allowing over 300 local children to learn about their history and to help boost the ecosystem along the sides of the trackbed. Local children grew native wild flowers which they then planted alongside the route. A year on we're pleased to report that the planting was a great success. The difference between the planted sections and the sections left to run wild, which have filled with nettles and thistles, is clear to see.

Not only does the greater diversity of flora and fauna help the ecology of the trackbed to return to how it would have been during the original operating life of the railway, but it also helps to boost the ecosystem generally. Additional and varied wild flowers attract more insects, which helps pollinate the crops in nearby fields. The insects also provide food for birds and animals, further enriching the ecosystem.

This year's series of school and group visits will soon be underway, allowing even more of our local children to benefit and learn from the project. Thanks go to our ecology volunteers who work hard to create these educational opportunities for our children.

Tracklaying update

2010-05-17T05:42:00.000-07:00

Thursday May 13th

Sleepers were laid out onto the branch line formation closely followed by two more panels of track.

Friday May 14th

The gang proceeded to drop ballast between the sleepers so that the new track could be slewed into the correct position and then lifted and packed. This was achieved by loading wheelbarrows and then barrowing the ballast onto the new track.

Also on Friday the hole was dug for the new branch exit signal post. The Great Central Railway's (GCR) signal and telegraph (S&T) department then erected the signal on Friday afternoon.

Saturday May 15th

We were joined today by six volunteers from the GCR's volunteer permanent way (P-Way) group. Thanks to Steve Saunders and his team for coming to work on the branch! Together with our own volunteers we had 25 people working on the trackbed at various times throughout the day. We were able to complete the lifting and packing of the last two panels. With plenty of wheelbarrows and people to help, we were able to barrow more ballast onto the newly laid track.

Tracklaying has also been mentioned on the websites of the GCR and Railway Vehicle Preservations.

We would like to thank all those who have worked on the project over this last week. This has included the GCR P-Way staff, GCR volunteers, S&T for erecting the signal, and our own project volunteers. The entire week has been a real team effort. Everyone has worked really hard to complete our first section of track. This is only the beginning though: with your help we can reach Mountsorrel!

We need a mile and a quarter of track to reach the end of the branch at Bond Lane. With budgetary cuts having a serious effect on the rail industry at the moment, potential second hand track sources are becoming increasingly difficult to come by at an affordable price. Nevertheless we have identified a potential source but we urgently need funds to secure this. Cuts are likely to continue for many years to come so this may be our last chance to secure the track we need at an affordable price. If you are able to support our track appeal please donate as soon as you can. Little and large amounts are gratefully received: whatever you can afford. Every donation takes us closer to completing the railway. We can only complete the railway with your help!

Tracklaying progress yesterday and today, 11-12 May

2010-05-12T11:59:00.000-07:00

Tracklaying is going very well indeed so far this week. Mountsorrel Railway volunteers, led by Great Central Railway (GCR) permanent way supervisor Andy Higginson, and assisted by other GCR volunteers and staff, have been working hard since Sunday.

The aim for this week is to install the junction point, an additional catch point at the start of the branch, plus up to five panels of track beyond. This will take the head of steel on to the branch line, approximately half way around the long curve near to the GCR junction. This is a tremendous milestone for our volunteers who have worked so hard over the last two and a half years to bring the project to this point.

Progress yesterday (Tuesday 11 May)

By 2.30pm yesterday afternoon the junction point was in and packed. The shorter rails needed to close the gap between the point and the end of the loop had also been cut, drilled and fitted. Volunteers were starting to lay out the sleepers for the first track panel, to take track through the branch gates and onto the branch itself.

Later yesterday afternoon the first panel of track was laid, taking the head of steel right up to the branch gate. This was followed by the laying of the catch point which took track back onto the Mountsorrel Railway for the first time in 50 years!

Progress today (Wednesday 12 May)

There was much work to do this morning before additional track could be laid. This morning’s work focused on further lifting and packing of the the junction point and the new section of rail in the the loop. This was achieved by jacking the rails and then using shovels to pack the ballast underneath. Good numbers of volunteers helped to complete this task relatively quickly. By lunchtime the track in the loop was effectively complete although the point still needs its point blade operation mechanism installing so that it can be set to allow trains onto the branch.

This afternoon's work was focusing on slewing the first panel of branch track and the catch point, achieved by levering bars into the ballast.

Thank you

We would like to thank all those who have worked on the track laying this week, and the GCR volunteers, staff and management for their support and assistance. We must also thank Andy Higginson and Alan Brassey who have devoted a great deal of time over the past couple of months arranging and planning the work. We couldn't have done it without you.

Donating

Currently we only have the funds to buy and lay five panels of track this week. Further tracklaying depends on donations.

Would you consider donating to the Mountsorrel Railway track appeal, so trains can run again from the Great Central Railway to Mountsorrel?

Please see the Mountsorrel Railway track appeal donation form for more information. You can help by donating whatever money you can afford, for example:

You could sponsor one or more sleepers at £15 each
You could sponsor one or more lengths of rail at £180 each
You could setup a standing order donation to the appeal, which would help reopen the Mountsorrel Railway even sooner

There has never been a better time to support the project! Thank you.

Mountsorrel Railway track laying has begun!

2010-05-10T02:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday six volunteers, assisted by many from the Great Central Railway, started removing the existing loop track to make way for the junction point. In only three hours the existing catch point, and the length of rail beyond, had been removed. Not bad considering we’ve never done anything like this before! Volunteers quickly learnt how to jack rails, remove and set chair springs, slide two-ton rails with ease, and move sleepers around.

As you’ll see from the photos, there’s no going back now!

Today a small length of rail will be cut and removed for the point to fit in place, and a digger will scrape the ballast to the correct height ready for the junction point to be craned into position. Let’s hope the weather stays fine. For the rest of the week several lengths of rail will be laid, with more to come in the future as funds allow.

Please support the project to enable further track to be installed.

Primary schoolchildren plant trees at the Mountsorrel Railway

2010-04-16T04:05:00.000-07:00

Children from Mountsorrel Christ Church and St Peters Primary School have visited the Mountsorrel Railway with their parents to plant new trees and hedgerow bushes along the formation. The planting was done under the watchful eye of our ecology group leader Lesley Humphries.

The hedgerows along either side of the trackbed had suffered through 50 years of neglect. Although our volunteers have worked hard over the last two and a half years to restore and encourage the hedgerows, there is still a long way to go.

Lesley commented:

It was great to welcome children from our local primary school to help with this important ecology work, which builds upon the planting visits we ran with the school last summer. It was lovely to see the children enjoying themselves so much!

If your school or young peoples' group, such as Scouts, Guides, Cubs, Brownies, or Boys Brigade, would like to help with planting native flora and fauna alongside the Mountsorrel Railway, we will be running a repeat of last year's popular planting visits this coming June. Please contact Steve Cramp, volunteer project coordinator, as soon as possible if you would like your school or group to be involved.

LanGuard VM sponsors the Mountsorrel Railway project

2010-04-06T04:49:00.000-07:00

LanGuard VM, a nationwide vegetation management and weed control business with a head office in Leicestershire, have very kindly offered to undertake a program of weed control along the Mountsorrel Railway trackbed.

Steve Cramp, volunteer project leader, said:

"We were concerned that the onset of Spring would bring with it a whole raft of unwanted weeds creeping through our mile long newly ballasted trackbed. As with any railway, it's imperative that the ballast is kept clear of weed growth to ensure that it drains well and the formation of the railway is protected. The cost for controlling the weeds over a mile of track bed is substantial and a significant overhead for a community volunteer project like ours. We were thrilled when LanGuard VM offered to keep the weeds at bay for us at no cost to the project and we really can't thank them enough!"

LanGuard VM Contracts Director Tony Marlow commented:

"We had heard about the Mountsorrel Railway project and its hopes of recreating part of our local history for today's generations to learn from and enjoy, but it was only when we saw for ourselves the phenomenal work that their group of community volunteers have done over the past two and a half years, we were only too happy to be able to support their endeavours and to offer our services."

The Mountsorrel Railway project aims to recreate part of our local history by rebuilding the Mountsorrel Railway both for historical purposes and to carry passengers as part of the Great Central Railway experience. Community volunteers have reconstructed the old trackbed and are now running a track appeal to raise the money required to lay track along the railway.

"We have just launched our track appeal with the aim of raising the £150,000 we need to complete the project." continued Steve "Our aim is to relay track in stages as donations come in. Local support has allowed us to source the first lengths of rail and track laying will start this coming May!"

If you would like to support the Mountsorrel Railway project's track appeal, please see full details on the project website www.mountsorrelrailway.org.uk.

Photos of wagons in action at recent GCR gala

2010-03-30T05:20:00.000-07:00

See here for more.

Many thanks to Gareth Griffiths for taking these excellent photos.

More photos of the wagons from the gala are here (Rick Eborall) and here (Ian Loasby).

Final Mountsorrel wagon completed - all three to run at GCR gala!

2010-03-22T04:46:00.000-07:00

The restoration of our three replica Mountsorrel Granite Company wagons is now complete. All three wagons have been marshalled together and they look truly fantastic!

The Great Central Railway will be including the wagons in a demonstration freight train at the 1960s gala this coming weekend (March 27th and 28th). It's great to see that even within only a few days of completion, the wagons are already satisfying the purpose of their restoration, which was to allow historical recreations. Once track laying on the Mountsorrel branch line gets under way (see our track appeal) this will open up an whole raft of historical and educational possibilities.

Come and see the wagons for yourself this coming weekend at the gala and be sure to visit our project stand on Rothley station (see map below). Our volunteers will be on hand to talk about the restoration and the wider project in general, and very attractive cardboard cut out models of the wagons will be on sale too!

View Route of Mountsorrel Railway in a larger map

Third and final replica Mountsorrel Granite Company wagon nearly finished

2010-03-13T23:47:00.000-08:00

Volunteers have been hard at work in at times very cold conditions over the winter to complete the final Mountsorrel Granite Company wagon to be used on the Mountsorrel Railway project.

Many young people have become involved with the final wagon including our team of teenage girls from the local area who volunteer on Tuesday evenings. Some have worked on the wagon as part of their Duke of Edinburgh award. Loughborough University has sponsored the restoration of the third wagon because of the involvement of young people and the educational benefits the wagons will bring. Once track is laid on the branch (see our track appeal) we will be able to unlock the educational possibilities of the project further still!

We give our thanks not only to our volunteers, but also to East Midlands Airport and Loughborough University for sponsoring the wagon restoration work, professional coach builder and sign writer John Robinson who has applied the livery to the three wagons, members of the public who have donated towards the wagon restoration, Nick Tinsley for allowing us to use three of his wagons for the project, and Railway Vehicle Preservations and the Great Central Railway (GCR) for their support.

The livery should be completed by this coming weekend. We have something special planned for the livery of the final wagon, so be sure to check back soon for pictures of our completed work!

The GCR plans to run the three wagons together in a freight train at the forthcoming 1960s gala, which runs from March 25th to 28th. Our project display stand and volunteers will be on hand at Rothley station to talk about the project, so please come and see both us and the wagons!

Please support the track appeal - to complete the Mountsorrel Railway!

2010-02-16T05:49:00.000-08:00

The Mountsorrel Railway project has come so far in such a short time. It has now reached a point where progress is only limited by a lack of money. Would you consider donating to the Mountsorrel Railway track appeal, so trains can run again from the Great Central Railway (GCR) towards Mountsorrel?

Since Steve Cramp and a large team of volunteers began work in 2007, most of the mile-long route between Swithland Sidings and Lafarge Quarry, disused since the 1950s, has been cleared and ballasted. Not only that but the bridge over the track has been repaired, three replica Mountsorrel wagons have been recreated, and over 300 children have taken part in activities with their schools and groups on the trackbed.

All this for only £4,500! (mostly the labour, machinery and ballast on the project has been donated by volunteers and local companies, for which we are extremely grateful)

Projects on the scale of the Mountsorrel Railway typically cost £1 million per mile of track to complete. We “only” need £150,000 to complete the project, which will cover buying, lifting, transporting and laying a mile of rail and 1,500 sleepers, and other items required to complete the railway.

Please see the Mountsorrel Railway track appeal donation form for more information about the appeal. You can help by donating whatever money you can afford, for example:

You could sponsor one or more sleepers at £15 each
You could sponsor one or more lengths of rail at £180 each
You could setup a standing order donation to the appeal, which would help reopen the Mountsorrel Railway even sooner

Exclusive incentives are available too, depending on the value of your donation. For more information contact George Overton. Incentives include:

a personal, extensive tour of the Mountsorrel Railway led by project leader Steve Cramp
travel on a Travelling Post Office during a non stop mail exchange on the GCR (not normally available to the public)
an invitation to ride on one of the first trains to travel on the recreated Mountsorrel Railway!

Your donation to the track appeal would help complete this unique and highly praised project. The GCR hopes to provide the chance for visitors to ride on the line, adding another aspect to the GCR: demonstrating how freight trains used to arrive in Swithland Yard from the quarry, their wagons ready for shunting, so the stone could be sent onwards by train across the country. There are important educational aspects to the project too. Rebuilding the branch provides an illustration not just of railway operation but rural life, and would be of enormous benefit to local schoolchildren.

Please support the Mountsorrel Railway track appeal and print off and complete the appeal form today. If you have any questions please contact George Overton. Thank you for your support.

Latest junior ecology session planned for Saturday February 13th

2010-02-04T05:03:00.000-08:00

We're pleased to announce that Lesley Humphries' popular junior ecology sessions will be returning on Saturday February 13th. This time Lesley will be helping the children to construct bird feeders, which will be placed along the trackbed to help our feathered friends through the rigours of winter!

The session will run from 2:00pm until around 3:45pm and is aimed at children of all ages, although children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. The project makes no charge for attending these sessions.

The meeting point is on the grassy area on the corner of the Halstead Road/Swithland Lane/Wood Lane Road junction (at the tree symbol on the map below). If you would like further information please contact Lesley.

View Route of Mountsorrel Railway in a larger map

Note: this session was originally planned for Saturday 6th February but has been moved to 13th February.

See us at the Great Central Railway gala this weekend!

2010-01-26T05:15:00.000-08:00

At the forthcoming Great Central Railway (GCR) winter steam gala this weekend, Mountsorrel Railway volunteers will be staffing a stand at Rothley station. Please come and see us!

We'll be there all day on Saturday 30 and Sunday 31 January should you like to find out more about the project. Look out for our banner! You'll be able to talk to the people involved, ask questions, see photos, and see a scale model of the proposed Bond Lane halt. On the Saturday you'll also be able to see restoration of the latest Mountsorrel Railway wagon taking place!

Additionally, if you visit us, you'll be in a prime spot to see the exciting line up of engines the GCR has arranged for the gala! And members of our sponsor charity Railway Vehicle Preservations will be on hand to show you round their latest restoration project in the Rothley carriage shed.

Rothley station is here:

View Route of Mountsorrel Railway in a larger map

For more about the gala, please see the video below:

We hope to see you there! For more information contact George Overton.

Loughborough University sponsors wagon restoration project!

2010-01-22T05:25:00.000-08:00

Loughborough University has very kindly provided a £500 grant towards the restoration costs of the third replica Mountsorrel Granite Company wagon. We are very grateful for this support from the university in recognition of the educational opportunities offered by our fleet of historic wagons. Once track is laid on the Mountsorrel Railway, the project hopes to include the wagons in historical recreations on the rebuilt branch line. Some of these recreations involve educational projects with local primary schools, aimed at allowing our younger generation to experience and reenact scenes from a bygone age.

Our young volunteer wagon team has already been hard at work putting the grant to good use and the restoration of the wagon is well under way.

Volunteer Steve Cramp, who leads the project, comments "The public has been generous in their support for our historical wagon restoration project. This, coupled with a grant from East Midlands Airport for the signwriting costs, has allowed us to complete the first two wagons, but we were left with a funding gap to complete the third and final wagon. Loughborough University's very generous grant plugs that hole and allows us to complete the wagon restoration project and unlock the historical educational potential they hold. We hope to have the third wagon completed by the end of February".

For more information about the wagon restoration, or the wider Mountsorrel Railway project, please contact George Overton.

Happy Christmas from the Mountsorrel Railway

2009-12-18T04:44:00.000-08:00

The project would like to thank our many volunteers, supporters and companies who have aided the project over the last year. We wish all our website readers a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. Next year we should see track on the branch, and hopefully trains!

In the meantime, even this close to Christmas, two important aspects of the project have moved on considerably:

Wood Lane bridge east side repointing completed!

Project volunteers have been working throughout this past year to repair the Mountsorrel Railway bridge at the top of Wood Lane. The work has been extensive, as reported in previous updates. Recently volunteers have been repointing the parapet walls which has been a painstaking and time consuming task. We are pleased to report that the eastern parapet wall has now been completed!

This has been possible through a donation by Mountsorrel Parish Council towards the material costs for the work. We are very grateful to the Parish Council for their support for the project. We would also like to express our thanks to the many volunteers, mostly from our local community, who have given their time over the last year to help restore the bridge, the end result looks fantastic! We also thank Lafarge Aggregates and Stonehurst Family Farm who have supported work done earlier in the year on the bridge.

Photo courtesy Nigel Harris

In November the project received a donation of 350 daffodil bulbs from a Mountsorrel resident who expressed a wish that they be planted around the bridge faces, in the hope that next spring they would help to show off our restoration work to full effect. The project is very grateful for this donation and volunteers have planted the bulbs has requested.

Attention is now turning to the west side parapet wall which is also in urgent need of repointing and repair. The material cost for this side of the bridge is expected to be around £50. If you or your company would like to sponsor the repair of the west side of the bridge, please get in touch with Steve Cramp.

Work begins on the third and final replica Mountsorrel wagon

Hot on the heels of our first two restored wagons, volunteer restoration work has now started on the third and final replica Mountsorrel Granite Company wagon. Volunteers have already stripped the existing rotten timbers from the floor, prepared the steel work for painting, commenced painting of the frames and made a start on preparing the sides for painting. At present work is being undertaken primarily by our Tuesday evening volunteer team. Our Tuesday evening team of teenage girls has now increased to seven, one of whom is working on the wagon as part of her Duke of Edinburgh awards scheme.

Wagon work will pause over the Christmas break, but if you would like to get involved, either on Saturdays, or Tuesday evenings, please get in touch with Steve Cramp.

Thanks again for your support and have a happy Christmas.

Recent press coverage

2009-11-28T00:53:00.000-08:00

News of the ballast link up to the Great Central Railway, and progress with the wagon restoration, has really caught the public's imagination!

Over the last few weeks we've had some great exposure in the press:

A further piece in the Quorndon Magazine. The article is reproduced, with permission, here and here. The Quorndon is the quarterly magazine for the village of Quorn. © 2008 The Quorndon. Further reproduction prohibited without written permission.

An article in the Leicester Mercury.

Pieces in the Mountsorrel Post and The Forest.

Two articles in the latest Steam Railway magazine, the world's biggest selling steam magazine.

We're very grateful to these publications for their support.

And, even with Christmas coming, volunteers will still be working hard on the project. There will be work ongoing on the trackbed in the coming weeks, restoration of the third wagon, and behind the scenes work securing track and fundraising. If you would like to offer your help, either with volunteering or fundraising, please let us know.

Further ballast laying complete

2009-11-18T12:34:00.000-08:00

A milestone point in the project has been reached, thanks to local firm McCanns donating their equipment and operators for free. There is now ballast laid from the junction with the Great Central Railway all the way up most of the route of the Mountsorrel Railway to the Wood Lane bridge.

Compare a photo of the junction in October 2007 (taken by Nigel Harris) with the very different scene snapped earlier this week:

Massive thanks to all the volunteers who have really worked hard over these last two days with very little notice and at times pretty unkind weather! We really could not have done this without them.

We must also thank McCanns, who have gone to extreme lengths to help us this week, and Haydn Yeo, project volunteer, for introducing us to and liaising with McCanns. Without Haydn and McCanns, we would not have been able to undertake two long sessions of ballast laying in July and November, lift the Wood Lane bridge stone, or other tasks requiring their equipment and expertise.

Thanks too to the Great Central Railway, who have had to make special arrangements so the ballast laying could take place this week, and to Lafarge of course for donating the ballast.

Second childrens' ecology activity session builds on the success of the first!

2009-11-05T08:15:00.000-08:00

On Saturday October 31, Mountsorrel Railway Ecology Group volunteer Lesley Humphries ran the second of our hugely successful children's ecology activity sessions.

These sessions are aimed at opening up the ecology of the trackbed and its surroundings to our younger generation and their parents. The railway is blessed with a wealth of wildlife, which our ecology group strives to maintain and encourage.

Our latest event involved the children and their parents studying the wildlife that had taken up residence in wildlife habitats that the children helped to build at the first session in September. The children were able to take bark rubbings and learnt to identify the types of trees along the line and how to tell one from the other. They also examined some of the 17 species of wild flowers that are still flowering along the trackbed.

These sessions are aimed at children of all ages and are open to anyone who would like to bring their children along. The project makes no charge for taking part in these events. The next session will be early in the New Year; further details will follow nearer the time.

Second replica Mountsorrel wagon completed in record time

2009-11-01T01:07:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to announce the completion of the second replica Mountsorrel Granite Company wagon!

Impressed by our work on the first wagon, RVP kindly allowed us to use space on their siding inside Rothley carriage shed for the second restoration. This meant that we were not restricted by the British weather as we were with the first wagon. This allowed our volunteers to really go to town and, coupled with our restoration knowledge obtained during the first restoration, we were able to push on at lightning speed with volunteer activity occurring almost daily over the last few weeks!

From start to finish the wagon took only five and a half weeks to restore! That's not to say that less work was required, far from it! A new floor had to be made and fitted together with full derusting and repainting of the metal frames both inside and out. End planks needed to be replaced as well meaning that the work required was almost on a par with the first wagon. As with the first wagon, even the bits you can't see have all been thoroughly restored as well.

Thanks must go to all our volunteers who have worked on the wagon over the last few weeks. Our volunteers have included people from all areas of the community from teenagers up to volunteers in their late 70s. Our wagon restoration project really seems to have caught the imagination of the community. We are also very grateful to East Midlands Airport for sponsoring the signwriting costs of all three wagons and to all our supporters who have donated funds to aid the wagon restoration project.

The wagons will form the core of historical recreations on the rebuilt branch line. These include a project we are undertaking with local primary schools to allow today's children to take part in a recreation of the Sunday school outings that used to run on the Mountsorrel Railway in the 1920s and 30s.

We are about to start work on the third and final wagon, so it's still not to late to help out with our wagon project, volunteers are always welcome (contact Steve Cramp). Alternatively you may wish to support our work with a financial donation. Thank you.

Childrens' ecology session this Saturday

2009-10-26T06:21:00.000-07:00

This Saturday afternoon, 31 October, volunteer Lesley Humphries will be running her latest childrens' ecology activity session. The children will be investigating the wildlife habitats that have been built around the trackbed, and other activities. The event will have an autumn/Halloween theme!

Please let Lesley know if you'd like to attend this event.

If you'd rather take part in other volunteer activity this Saturday, between 9am and 4pm our volunteers will be clearing the trackbed around the Wood Lane bridge. Please e-mail Steve Cramp if you'd like to join in.

Your support with both of these initiatives would be much appreciated. Many thanks.

Radio 5 coverage

2009-10-19T05:46:00.001-07:00

If any of you were up early, or late, depending on how you look at it, on Sunday morning, you may have heard the BBC Radio 5 Live "Up All Night" interview with Steve Cramp (the volunteer who coordinates the Mountsorrel Railway website).

The interview ran for 22 minutes which almost makes it a programme in its own right about the project! Normally TV and radio interviews rarely last longer than a couple of minutes, so this is really good coverage.

You can catch the interview on the BBC website by clicking here.

Second Mountsorrel Granite wagon restoration progresses at a rapid pace

2009-10-02T05:09:00.000-07:00

It is only three weeks since restoration on the second Mountsorrel Granite Company liveried wagon started, but progress has been nothing short of remarkable!

A combination of improved methods based on what we learnt from the first wagon, increased volunteer activity, and the luxury of being able to work on the wagon in the dry environment of the carriage shed opposed to outside in the rain, are the reasons for the improved pace of the restoration.

Although the second wagon is a three plank as opposed to the first which was a five plank, the work required on this wagon has been almost the same as the first. Again, we have had to replace the entire floor and some of the end planks. As with the first wagon, the decision was taken to replace the floor with hardwood planks because of their extended life span opposed to softwood. The intention to use the restored wagons in historical recreations involving local school children, means that the floors must be in excellent condition.

As with the first wagon the entire frames have had to be de-rusted and repainted. This can be a messy job as space between the frames is restricted.

The existing planks that can be reused have been carefully repaired to ensure extended life.

At present the painting of the frames is almost complete. The new end planks have been painted and fitted. The rest of the sides have been primered, undercoated and top coat glossing is almost complete. New timbers for the floor have been cut and painted and are almost ready for fitting.

It took five months to restore the first wagon but we expect the second to be ready for the signwriter's attention in around two weeks time! If you are coming to the Great Central Railway Gala on October 10th/11th, then as well as seeing the completed first wagon on display at Quorn, you should also be able to view the second wagon at Rothley shed. Please come and say hello.

If you would like to get involved with restoring the second wagon, or helping out with the third, then please get in touch with Steve Cramp. We have volunteer sessions on Saturdays, Tuesday evenings and occasional Sundays and weekdays, so we should be able to find a time to suit you. Funds are still required for the restoration of the third wagon so if you would like to donate, please download our donation form or contact George Overton.

Mountsorrel Railway first ecology activity session is a tremendous success!

2009-09-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday September 26th was the launch date for a new initiative by the Mountsorrel Railway Project aimed at giving local children and their parents the chance to learn about and experience ecology.

Mountsorrel resident and project volunteer Lesley Humphries organised a series of activities aimed at helping children to develop a better understanding of the environment and, on this occasion, insect wildlife in particular. Lesley said:

The trackbed and surrounding area of the old Mountsorrel Railway is a wonderful haven for wildlife. We want to open up the educational opportunities of this ecological resource in a controlled manner that allows children to learn in a hands on fashion. Children can learn so much from an opportunity like this. It's great to allow the parents to share in the experience as well!

The children spent several hours exploring the areas around the trackbed and were shown how insects thrive in certain locations and not others. The children were able to see many different types of creatures first hand. The children then constructed their own mini wildlife habitats which were placed along the trackbed at various locations.

Volunteer project leader Steve Cramp commented:

Lesley has worked hard over the last few weeks planning, researching and sourcing materials and it was great to see so many local families come along to take part. My sincere thanks go to Lesley for creating this learning opportunity.

As a direct result of the success of the first activity session, Lesley hopes to run a further ecology session at the end of October. The project makes no charge for these activities. If you would like to take part in future sessions please contact Lesley or see the project website for further details.

And don't forget there's an opportunity to join guided tours of the Mountsorrel Railway on the weekend of Saturday 10th October! See here for more information.

See the Mountsorrel Railway for yourself!

2009-09-23T07:57:00.000-07:00

Come and see the Mountsorrel Railway project for yourself on the weekend of Saturday 10 October!

All day on both the Saturday and Sunday of that weekend, ticket holders to the Great Central Railway's Steam Gala will be able to take a free hourly shuttle bus for a one hour guided walking tour of the trackbed.

You'll be shown round by our volunteers, who'll talk about the history of the line, our work with schools and the local community, and show you what's being done to imminently bring back this industrial branch of the Great Central!

For more information about the Steam Gala click here and see the video below.

More details, including bus times, will be posted on this website nearer the time. If you have any questions about the event, or the project in general, please contact us. Hope to see you there!

Learn about ecology at the Mountsorrel Railway

2009-09-15T07:25:00.000-07:00

Local volunteer Lesley Humphries will be running a special ecology session aimed at younger children and their parents on the afternoon of Saturday September 26th.

The session will start at 2:00pm and last around 90 minutes to 2 hours. The meeting area is on the grassy area near to the bench at the top of Halstead Road, at its junction with Swithland Lane/Wood Lane.

During the session the children will have the opportunity to construct their own mini wildlife habitat which will be carefully positioned alongside the trackbed. The children can then return to these in future sessions to see what creatures have taken up residence there.

Lesley will also be conducting a wildlife hunt aimed at helping the children to seek out and discover the wildlife that lives alongside the trackbed.

The session is open to the general public and not just those who are currently involved with the project. The Mountsorrel Railway will be making no charge for anyone taking part in these activities. We simply seek to give our local children, and their parents, the rare and unique opportunity to get hands on with nature!

Lesley is putting a tremendous amount of time and effort into putting together this activity, so we really hope that the public will come along to support her. For health and safety reasons, children must be accompanied by their parents or guardians. If the session is a success we hope to run further sessions in the future.

Lesley is collecting various items to help with this activity, so please can you bring along at least one of the following:

Blocks of wood
Empty plastic drinks bottles
Magnifying glasses
Insect collecting containers/kits that you might have

Please e-mail Lesley if you intend to come, so that we can make sure we have enough materials for everyone. We very much hope to see you there!

A very special thanks goes to Lesley for running this session!

Our first replica Mountsorrel Granite Company wagon now restored!

2009-09-04T04:56:00.000-07:00

The restoration of our first replica Mountsorrel Granite Company wagon has now been completed!

Project volunteers have spent the last five months restoring the wagon. Restoring the wagon really has been a community initiative involving volunteers of all ages and we even have a group of five teenage girls from Mountsorrel giving up their time to volunteer on Tuesday evenings! We would like to thank all of our volunteers who have worked on the first wagon, some of whom have devoted many hours to recreate our heritage. Such as young Jamie and Lenny, who have worked on the wagon under the guidance of Dave almost every day throughout the school summer holidays!

The Mountsorrel Granite Company once had over 750 of these wagons at various times. Sadly none of the originals survive but we were able to track down similar wagons which in themselves are 50-60 years old. These are ideal for recreating Mountsorrel's industrial railway history!

The wagons will be used for historical recreations on the restored Mountsorrel Railway. Most notable of these recreations is our intention to recreate the Sunday School outings of the 1920s and 30s when local children would have rode in the wagons. We are working with Mountsorrel, Quorn and Rothley primary schools to allow todays' children to recapture those those scenes of yesteryear. If you would like your school to be involved in this recreation please contact Steve Cramp.

We are very grateful to East Midlands Airport for sponsoring the signwriting costs of the three wagons, and also to professional signwriter John Robinson for doing such a good job of applying the lettering.

We hope to start work on the second wagon within the next couple of weeks. If you would like to recreate a piece of history by volunteering to restore the second wagon then please contact Steve. Funds are still required for the remaining two wagons so if you would like to donate to support our work please download and fill in our donation form.

Mountsorrel Railway needs more volunteers - can you help?

2009-09-03T04:44:00.000-07:00

More and more families are coming along to volunteer on the Mountsorrel Railway project. Volunteering with the project is a good way of spending family time together in a constructive environment. At the end of the day you can look back and see what you have managed to achieve, and go home with the satisfaction that you have done something to help a community project! The project helps to encourage children to be constructive and creative whilst getting exercise and most importantly away from the computer games and TV!

The Mountsorrel Railway project welcomes volunteers of all ages. Whether you come as a family, with a friend, or as an individual, you'll be made very welcome indeed. We have tasks for everyone regardless of age or gender.

More volunteers are needed as the project approaches it's most exciting phase yet and continues to grow and expand! If you would like to come along and help a local community project, then please get in touch with Steve Cramp.

Mountsorrel Parish Council sponsors the repointing of the Wood Lane bridge

2009-08-12T05:22:00.000-07:00

Great care has been taken to restore the repaired sections of the Wood Lane railway bridge to its original appearance.

The remaining sections of the bridge are also in urgent need of work in the form of repointing to replace the original mortar that has eroded away over time. Although the material costs of repointing the bridge are not that great, it is a very time consuming and skilled task therefore employing contractors would be be beyond the financial means of the project. However, without undertaking this work the bridge would deteriorate very quickly indeed.

Our volunteer stonemason has kindly agreed to take on the task of repointing the road facing side of the bridge, supported by other members of our volunteer team. The total material costs are around £100.

Mountsorrel Parish Council has very kindly agreed to donate £50 towards these costs. We are grateful to them for supporting the project in this way.

The already repaired sections of the bridge give a good impression of what the completed works will look like.

The bridge is an important reminder of Mountsorrel's industrial past and we are delighted that the Parish Council is helping us to protect our heritage!

Aerial photos of the trackbed

2009-08-05T23:59:00.000-07:00

A local supporter of the project has kindly sent us several superb aerial photos, which were taken in July 2009 after the ballast had been laid. The sequence starts from the Great Central Railway (GCR) junction and moves along the trackbed towards Mountsorrel.

This shot, looking south, shows the GCR running top left to middle right with Swithland Sidings visible in the top left of the picture and Swithland reservoir to the right. The branch can be clearly seen curving away from the GCR and leaving the shot towards Mountsorrel in the bottom left. The lighter green area to the right of the branch trackbed approximately half way around the curve, is the proposed site of Railway Vehicle Preservation's (RVP's) future carriage shed. The current head of ballast is obscured by the line of trees in the bottom left of shot.

This shot, again looking south, was taken from a little further along the branch. The farmer's track can be seen crossing the trackbed in the middle of the picture. The newly laid ballast can be seen on the approach to the crossing but the trees obscure the ballast beyond. The crossing itself will be ballasted and constructed once track laying reaches it.

This shot was taken looking north. It shows the long straight beyond the crossing. Again the newly laid ballast is clearly visible.

This shot, again looking north, shows the curve at the end of the RVP section of the trackbed. The Lafarge section starts roughly in the middle of the shot and leaves the frame towards Nunckley Hill on the right.

This view, taken looking north east, shows the trackbed as it enters the Nunckley cutting, passing through the old Nunckley Hill quarry, under Wood Lane, before continuing towards Bond Lane in the far distance.

A close up of the head of ballast at the end of phase one in the base of the old Nunckley Hill quarry. Wood Lane can be seen crossing the trackbed just beyond the ballast to the right of shot. It is also just possible to pick out the newly restored bridge wall on the bridge. At this point the head of ballast is 1,300m from the GCR with 500m to go to reach Bond Lane.

You can have a tour of the trackbed for yourself if you come to the Great Central Railway gala on 10-11 October. Hope to see you there!

Ballast laying pushes on to within sight of the Great Central Railway!

2009-07-14T12:07:00.000-07:00

Wow - what a weekend!

Mountsorrel Railway volunteers have staged a massive three day ballast laying push, which saw the head of ballast extend from its previous position some 1,010 metres from the junction with the Great Central Railway (GCR), to within 330m of the junction! In all 680m of ballast were laid over the three days, meaning that 970m of the trackbed is now ballasted and ready to have track laid.

(many more photos here)

This is a phenomenal achievement, which took a tremendous amount of preparation and planning prior to the event - coupled with the dedication and so much hard work by our team of volunteers over the three day stint.

The ballast laying was only possible through the very kind donation of plant equipment and operators by J. McCann (Nottingham) Ltd, and Lafarge Aggregates Mountsorrel Quarry who very kindly donated the ballast. We are immensely grateful to both John McCann and Lafarge Aggregates for their very kind support of the project.

Our attention is now turning to the completion of the last 330m to join up with the GCR. If you, or the company you work for, might be interested in sponsoring the project by providing plant equipment to help with all or part of this task, then please contact project leader Steve Cramp. Funds are urgently needed to allow us to complete the ballast laying and reach the GCR so that track laying can commence. Please see our donations form for details of how to donate and support the project.

Pete Waterman visits the Mountsorrel Railway

2009-07-09T11:55:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday music industry legend and TV personality Pete Waterman visited the Mountsorrel Railway. Pete has a keen interest in heritage railways and had heard about the project and the work we are doing with children.

His visit coincided with the final school party history/ecology session for this term, which consisted of children and parents from Mountsorrel Primary School. In all we have run 13 visits for local schools and groups over the last two months. 328 local children have been able to visit the trackbed to learn about their local history and ecology. Check out the photo section of the website for photos of the various visits.

Pete was very impressed with what he saw and spent over an hour with us talking to the children and project volunteers. He asked to be kept informed as the project progresses and develops, so hopefully we will see him back with us again in the future. We are very grateful to Pete for taking the time out of his busy schedule to come and see us.

Pete posted the following on his personal blog:

On Saturday, I popped down to see the Mountsorrel project which is a branch of the Great Central - a great idea and very different approach. I think it’s a first and you should all try to see it. The team is made up of ecologists and environmentalists as part of the team and it shows. The local schools are all involved with re planting the wild flowers and there are youngsters all over the place getting very excited by it . The ballast was donated and delivered by Lafarge from their Mountsorrel quarry, which is a great example of a company really working with their community.

If you'd like to offer your support to the project too, please consider volunteering or donating to the project.

STOP PRESS: Are you free from 8am tomorrow (Friday 9 July) or Saturday? Volunteers urgently needed for surveying the trackbed. No experience necessary. Please e-mail Steve Cramp or phone him on 0116 230 1374. Thanks.

Brian Simpson MEP visits Mountsorrel Railway

2009-06-23T13:11:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we received a visit from European Member of Parliament Brian Simpson.

He had heard about the the project and wanted to see for himself the work we are doing with local children, and the community spirit that the project is creating. Project leader Steve Cramp showed him around, together with Great Central Railway (GCR) Director Nigel Harris and Chair David Morgan.

Mr Simpson spent quite sometime on the trackbed talking to members of the Junior Ecology Group and other volunteers. He was very impressed with the progress being made and that it was great to see the community working together.

We are very grateful to Mr Simpson for endorsing the project in this way and we will be sure to keep him fully informed of our continued progress.

Ballast laying gets underway!

We are please to announce that ballast laying has finally started! Ballast is the small stones that support the sleepers and track. This is the final stage in the process before track laying commences. We hope that the head of ballast will reach the GCR junction at Swithland Sidings in a few weeks time. We are extremely grateful to Lafarge Aggregates for donating the ballast to allow this to take place.

Lafarge have commented that they are pleased to be able to support what has turned out to be an inspirational project that has reached out to all age groups of the community.

Junction signal ready to be installed

The GCR's Signal and Telegraph volunteers have been working to restored a signal for use on the Mountsorrel Railway. Once installed the signal will control the flow of trains off the branch line and onto the GCR mainline.

As you can see, we are making very speedy progress with the reconstruction of the Mountsorrel Railway. To show your support, please consider making a donation to the project.

Are you free this Saturday morning 27 June?

2009-06-23T04:37:00.000-07:00

Are you free this Saturday morning 27 June between 9.30am and 1pm please?

If so we really need you to help with some urgent surveying of the trackbed of the soon to be recreated Mountsorrel Railway. No experience necessary.

To those of you sitting on the sidelines, waiting to get involved, this is your chance to come and make a difference.

To offer your help or to find out more, please e-mail Steve Cramp or add a comment to this message ASAP. Thanks.

Phase two Wood Lane bridge wall repairs completed

2009-06-19T23:38:00.000-07:00

The restoration of the bridge wall at Wood Lane by our project volunteers has now been completed. The final cornerstone, weighing in at around 250kg, was too heavy to lift into place by hand. We are pleased to say that Stonehurst Family Farm came to our assistance and offered to lift the final stone as a donation to the project. We are very proud of the completed restoration. All of the marked up stones fitted perfectly into their original positions ensuring that the wall retains it's original appearance.

Whilst we had lifting machinery on site the opportunity was taken to remove one of the large hand carved capping stones which had become slightly dislodged from its original position by ivy growing underneath it. The ivy was removed and the stone replaced all within a couple of minutes.

The restoration of the bridge would not have been possible without the donation of tools, materials and a new foundation concrete pour by Lafarge Aggregates. We are very grateful to Lafarge and Stonehurst Family Farm for their assistance in restoring the bridge.

Attention is now turning to phase three of the bridge restoration work which involves the removal of a small elder tree which was growing out of the top of the stonework. Again the stones have been numbered to ensure that they all go back in their original positions. We hope to complete the restoration of this part of the bridge over the next three weeks.

School and group visits continue!

We are now over half way through our program of school and group visits. Last Saturday we hosted a visit from pupils of Christ Church and St Peter's Primary school in Mountsorrel. Children, parents and teachers came along to take part in our ecology project to plant native wild flowers along the sides of the railway. The purpose of this is to encourage the wildlife of the trackbed to diversify and expand forming an haven for insects, small animals and birds.

The children also had a go at our history and ecology hunt that encourages them to look around them to discover the historical and ecological areas of interest along the railway.

The visit went very well indeed, so well in fact that a second visit has hastily been organised for later this month to allow more children from Christ Church and St. Peter's to expeience and learn from the Mountsorrel Railway!

We have so far received visits from St. Bartholomew's Primary School in Quorn, both the Monday and Tuesday Quorn Scout groups, Mountsorrel Boys Brigade, and Quorn Guides. Over the coming weeks, as well as a second visit from Mountsorrel primary school, we will also be hosting visits from Mountsorrel Guides, Mountsorrel Scouts and Woodhouse Eaves Scouts.

Humphrey Perkins High School at Barrow Upon Soar are also planning a series of visits in conjunction with Leicester University Archaeology department to allow pupils to undertake a detailed industrial archaeological study of key areas of historical interest along the trackbed.

The Mountsorrel Railway project is making no charge to the schools, groups or universities taking part.

Mountsorrel Charities Fayre

Despite the rain on the Saturday morning of June 6, we still had many visitors to our stand at the Mountsorrel Charities Fayre. Thank you for coming to see us and for your overwhelming support for the project! We gained several new volunteers throughout the morning and thanks to those of you that help us with information for the wagon restoration.

Mountsorrel wagon restoration continues

The restoration of the first of three historical wagons into the livery of the Mountsorrel Granite Company is progressing well. Work on the frames is now complete and volunteers are restoring the timber work of the wagon. We hope to have her ready for the signwriter to apply the final livery within a matter of weeks!

As ever, raising funds is an essential part of the project. Without money we simply won't be able to buy track or other related materials:

to make a donation please click here to download a standing order form; or send a cheque, made out to "RVP Ltd" with "Mountsorrel Railway" written on the back, to 112 Balmoral Road, Mountsorrel, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE12 7EW, or e-mail George Overton

to volunteer please e-mail Steve Cramp, project coordinator

Thank you.

PS the first ballast has just been laid on the trackbed! And a local MEP is visiting today to see the work which he has heard so many positive things about! More about these two key developments in a future update.

Project moves into its busiest period yet

2009-05-15T07:37:00.000-07:00

The already relentless pace of the Mountsorrel Railway project is moving up into an even higher gear over the next few weeks. Last Tuesday we hosted a visit from the entire year five of St. Bartholomew's Primary School in Quorn. 57 children came with their teachers and volunteer parent helpers to experience and learn from the Mountsorrel Railway.

The children undertook activities involving metal detecting, archaeological investigation, wild flower planting and recording the history of the railway through sketching and report writing. The visit was a massive success with several children commenting that it was the best school trip they had ever been on! This is testament to the hard work put in by the school and our volunteers to plan the visit to ensure that the children got as much out of it as possible.

In all the children discovered two wheelbarrows full of metal artefacts from the railway which they have taken back to school for further study.

This was the first of 11 visits we have planned with local schools and community groups over the summer term. In all just over 300 children will be able to experience and learn from the railway over the next few weeks. They will also be taking part in our ecology project to restore the sides of the formation to how they would have appeared during the original operating life of the railway. Each group or school has been allocated a section of trackbed to plant up wild flowers, which they have been growing in the classroom and at home. It's a great way to allow our younger generation to get involved with ecology and experience it in a natural surrounding.

Hot on the heals of this was a visit from the 2nd Quorn Scout Group on May 12th. The Scouts planted wild flowers in their adopted section of the trackbed and also had a go at an "ecology hunt" we have devised to encourage the children to look around them and discover the wildlife of the trackbed.

Last weekend we ran a very successful series of trackbed tours for visitors to the Great Central Railway'ss 40th anniversary gala. With most of our work away from publicly accessible locations, this was one of the first chances for people to see all the hard work that our volunteers are putting into the project. We hope to be able to repeat something similar in the future.

As well as the tours last weekend we also had multiple volunteer work parties beavering away on various aspects of the project. Work on restoring the bridge wall at Wood Lane is continuing steadily. This is quite a complex job to ensure that the predominate stones all fit back into their original places. Thanks to the volunteer help of a local builder with stonemasonry skills, the bridge is looking absolutely fantastic. Another few weeks should see it returned to its former glory! The bridge restoration would not be possible without the very kind donation of materials by Lafarge Aggregates and the donation of a concrete pour for the foundations by Lafarge Ready-mix.

Work was also progressing at Rothley carriage and wagon works to restore the first of three wagons into the livery of the Mountsorrel Granite Company. Restoration of the frames is continuing well and we will soon be working on the timbers. East Midlands Airport has kindly agreed to fund the sign writing costs for all three wagons. This is fantastic news, allowing us to employ a professional sign writer to ensure the livery is to a very high standard. We are very grateful to the airport for this donation.

Our ecology group was also at work clearing nettles ahead of the wild flower planting.

The project really is a hive of activity at the moment! The pace will not be letting up over the coming weeks with work on the bridge continuing, wagon restoration and our ongoing visits from schools and groups.

There couldn't be a better time to get involved with this vibrant and very active project. If you would like to volunteer please get in touch with Steve Cramp. If you'd like to donate, please download our standing order form or contact George Overton.

Mountsorrel Railway featured on Radio Leicester

2009-05-11T02:26:00.000-07:00

This morning BBC Radio Leicester broadcast an interview with project coordinator Steve Cramp, which was recorded last week. Subsequently the BBC website featured a news article here about the Mountsorrel Railway, along with a recording of the interview. A transcript of the interview is below; we're very grateful to the BBC, and to DJ Ben Jackson, for their interest in the project.

It's been a busy and exciting week for the Mountsorrel Railway: work to repair the Wood Lane bridge and the wagons continues, schools and community groups have been visiting, and we ran guided tours for over 120 visitors (from as far away as Paignton in Devon!) from the Great Central Railway gala at the weekend. Of course work also carries on to prepare the trackbed for ballast and rail.

Transcript follows:

BBC Radio Leicester, Ben Jackson breakfast show, 11 May 2009 transcription of interview with Steve Cramp re Mountsorrel Railway:

Ben: “I went to find out what was happening about the long forgotten Mountsorrel Railway. Well it turned out that work was underway to restore it and eventually run trains along it. That work's continued at lightning pace. But even more importantly, perhaps, it's turned out to be an amazing community project concentrating on ecology just as much as industrial archaeology. Steve Cramp is the project manager. I went out to see him last week.”

Steve: “We're walking on the trackbed of the old Mountsorrel Railway, and we've moved the leaf mulch and mud off the top now. It's revealed the original Mountsorrel ballast that lay underneath and that's what you can hear that we're walking on now. It's hundred year old ballast that's just crying out for a new railway. This area where we are at the moment, Ben, the trees and the bushes at the side had almost formed an archway above the railway which had just, basically, left a tunnel. And what'd happened underneath was very little wildlife, as far as grasses and wild flowers, could actually come through. Whereas originally, during the original life of the railway, you would've had grasses and wild flowers along the cutting sides. It would've looked beautiful and of course they all encourage insects and butterflies to come back, of which we've just seen one.”

Ben: “It's beautiful. Just for people who don't know, this is the old railway. It was never a passenger railway, it was an industrial railway that ran from Great Central Railway, which is behind us, through into Mountsorrel to serve the quarry. That was all it was here for, and for decades it would've been all but forgotten except by a handful of local historians.”

Steve: “Yes that's right. It fell out of use in the mid 1950s, and was lifted around the end of the 50s. And from then it was just left and abandoned and it disappeared from view, from the roadside and the surrounding area. It just looked like a hedgerow. But inside there was the railway waiting to be reborn.”

Ben: “The thing is, since I last came down, which is a few months ago now, the whole project's grown. And it started off as you wanting to get this railway back up and running, in some form, and actually it's become an ecology project that happens to have a railway in it. And even more than that it happens to be a youth ecology project, because you've got all all these local schools. My son's local school has been down here on a school trip, digging up metal with metal detectors and all that kind of thing and, as you say, planting wild flowers. What is it that's made this such a community project?”

Steve: “I think really it's perhaps people can see that we're bringing something good to the area, something that people can get behind, and we can create that community spirit that seems to be lacking from society in so many areas now. We're not just a little shutaway group doing something with a specific interest. We have children in the junior ecology group as young as four, and they go up to 13, and then beyond that we have young people, and middle aged people, and older people. All sorts of people helping us with the railway rebuilding. I think our oldest volunteer's 77 and as I just said our youngest is four. So it's something for everybody. And we have men, and ladies as well; we have entire families that are involved with the project. The vast majority of our volunteers are from the local villages: Mountsorrel, Rothley and Quorn, although we have some that come every week from Birmingham. The project really does seem to reach out. But it differs from a typical heritage railway restoration project in that we do have so many local people involved. It really is a community project.”

Ben: “On a day like today it's actually achingly beautiful down here. We're surrounded still by the last of the bluebells and all sorts of other local small plants. I'm being divebombed by butterflies and flies of all various descriptions. This is just beautiful.”

Steve: “Yes there's buzzards down here, and kestrels, and owls, and we developed a program of putting birdboxes up. In fact just behind us here you can see there's a blue tit box on the tree, which is now inhabited. The boxes have only been up a couple of months and already a large number of them are inhabited by birds. The boxes have been well built, they've even got slate roofs! There's a pride and a passion in what the volunteers are doing.”

Ben: “I have to say I've done a lot of those sort of projects in the past but I think that's one of the most fantastic. It's really inspirational there. I think it's because the community have got so heavily involved. If you want to find out some more information, if you go into a search engine on the internet and just put in “Mountsorrel Railway” you'll find a great website there. Really well worth having a look at, and maybe you'll want to give them a hand.”

First chance for you to experience the Mountsorrel Railway in person!

2009-04-25T23:40:00.000-07:00

On the weekend of 9 and 10 May, it'll be the first chance for you to experience the Mountsorrel Railway in person.

That weekend the award winning Great Central Railway (GCR) is holding a gala show to celebrate its ruby anniversary. Steam and diesel engines will be lining up, with other attractions, to mark 40 years of preservation progress.

Most exciting will be a regular free bus shuttle from Quorn station to the Mountsorrel Railway for gala ticket holders. You'll be able to walk the route of the line and meet volunteers working on the project. Good footwear is advised.

For more information about this exciting opportunity to visit the Mountsorrel Railway for the first time, see the GCR website or contact us. Thank you.

Junior Ecology Group launches

2009-04-23T03:29:00.000-07:00

The Mountsorrel Railway project has begun a new group for those aged under 14 who would like to be involved in the project.

The Junior Ecology Group will take on tasks to help develop and encourage the ecology of the trackbed and will work alongside our existing Ecology Group. Current tasks involve the planting of wild flowers along the sides of the formation and studies/investigations into the vast diversity of wildlife that exists along the railway corridor.

This is an ideal opportunity for children to learn about wildlife up close and in a natural environment. If you or your children would like to get involved with either the Junior or Senior Ecology Group, please send an email to amanda@mountsorrelrailway.org.uk.

Children under the age of 14 must be accompanied on site by a parent/guardian at all times.

New Quorn magazine article

2009-04-18T09:24:00.000-07:00

The latest edition of The Quorndon village magazine has again just run a very supportive article about the Mountsorrel Railway here.

The Quorndon is the quarterly magazine for the village of Quorn. The article is reproduced, with permission. © 2008 The Quorndon. Further reproduction prohibited without written permission.

Schools and community groups get involved

2009-03-18T12:45:00.000-07:00

We're pleased to report that several local schools and community groups, including the Guides and Scouts, are now involved with our schools project!

They'll be working with us during the summer term to undertake a large scale planting of wild flowers along the sides of the trackbed. This should encourage the ecology of the trackbed after the lack of light, resulting from the tree canopy, which had stifled plant growth for many years. Our local young people will also have the opportunity to study the history of the railway first hand with metal detecting and archaeological investigations.

We would like to express our thanks to Brooklea Nurseries Ltd of Rothley, and Loughborough Road Nurseries and Garden Centre of Quorn, for their kind donation of seed trays for use with the schools project. It's great to see more local businesses supporting the project. If your firm would like to support the Mountsorrel Railway, please contact George Overton.

If you're involved with a local community group, or a school that is not yet taking part, please email Steve Cramp for more details. The project doesn't make any charge for undertaking these visits; we merely seek to open up the ecological and historical educational possibilities of the project to as many people as possible.

Wood Lane bridge restoration gets underway

2009-03-18T12:42:00.000-07:00

If you have passed over the Wood Lane bridge during the last few weeks, it would have been very difficult not to notice the collapsing end section of the bridge wall. The wall was at imminent risk of falling into the railway cutting below, so action needed to be taken quickly to protect the structure of the bridge.

As a charity community project relying entirely on donations, paying for contractors to repair the bridge was beyond our financial capabilities. Nevertheless the Mountsorrel Railway project couldn't simply stand back and let the bridge collapse, so our volunteers decided to rise to the challenge and rescue the bridge ourselves!

We still needed tools and materials to undertake the work so, with the bridge only days away from collapse, we set about contacting local companies appealing for help. We're very pleased to say that the owners of Mountsorrel Granite Quarry, Lafarge Aggregates, responded quickly and offered to provide hand tools and materials to undertake the restoration! We're deeply grateful to Lafarge for offering to assist with this kind donation and at such very short notice! It's great to know that local businesses support our efforts to preserve Mountsorrel's heritage.

With tools in hand, work was able to start last Saturday. With only hammers and chisels our team of volunteers began carefully separating each of the granite stones. All of the important stones were labelled to ensure they could be replaced in their original positions when the bridge is rebuilt over the coming weeks.

The removed stones have all been removed from site to prevent the possibility of theft. This was an undertaking in itself as there are over 350 stones weighing around four tonnes in total!

With volunteers working on Saturdays, we estimate it will take seven weeks to restore the wall to its former glory. Further website updates will detail the work over the coming weeks. If you are passing whilst the team is at work, please say hello: we'd be happy to answer any questions you have about the project.

Stay in touch with the Mountsorrel Railway project

2009-03-18T12:18:00.000-07:00

We'd really like to keep you regularly updated about progress with the Mountsorrel Railway project. Here's three easy free ways to stay in touch!

Join our new mailing list, where you'll receive the latest news from this website directly to your e-mail inbox. To sign up simply e-mail mountsorrelrailway-subscribe@yahoogroups.com, or go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mountsorrelrailway, or enter your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the page.
Join our Facebook group.
Use a blog reader like Bloglines or Google Reader.

We hope you'll want to stay in touch with us so you can hear the latest news about the project. Thanks.

Main Line magazine article available for download

2009-03-04T03:18:00.000-08:00

The Mountsorrel Railway was recently featured in the Spring 2009 edition of Main Line magazine. The editor of the magazine has kindly created a downloadable version of the article and has given us copyright permission to put it up on our website. Please take a look to see all the latest news about the project.

Main Line is the quarterly magazine sent to the Friends of the Great Central Main Line supporters group (FOGCML), which you can find out more about here. Please join FOGCML if you want to play a part in preserving and operating the remarkable Great Central Railway. By joining, you’re entitled to benefits like the award winning Main Line magazine, exclusive offers and ticket discounts.

Many thanks to Dennis Wilcock for allowing us to use the article.

Mountsorrel Railway takes a giant leap forward!

2009-02-13T00:48:00.000-08:00

Over the last week local digger contractor, Steve Barsby, has been hard at work scrapping mud from the surface of the trackbed. The original trackbed base was buried under an average of three inches of mud and leaf mulch that had built up on the surface since the railway fell out of use. Contractors have removed all of the mud to reveal the original trackbed for the first time in almost 50 years. We now have a length of over 1,100m, which is two thirds of the total trackbed, poised to receive ballast!

(more recent photos available at our Flickr site)

This work was only possible thanks to the very kind donations of our many supporters. The on going progress of the project depends entirely on your financial support, so please send a donation (on a cheque made out to RVP Ltd, with Mountsorrel Railway written on the back) to 112 Balmoral Road, Mountsorrel, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE12 7EW, or contact george@mountsorrelrailway.org.uk.

The next task is to stabilise several soft areas of the trackbed. J. McCann (Nottingham) Ltd have very kindly agreed to undertake this work for us at NO cost to the project! We hope to complete this work in March. We will then start work on laying the ballast that Lafarge Aggregates have very kindly donated to the project.

These are very exciting times for the project, so why not become involved yourself? As well as the continuing process of rebuilding the railway, we are also about to embark on a series of site visits with several local schools. This will allow the children to experience the history of the railway first hand. Our Ecology Group is also under way, developing ideas and initiatives to encourage and study the wildlife along side the railway. There are many areas and we have something to interest everyone. To enquire about volunteering with any area of the project please contact Steve Cramp at steve@mountsorrelrailway.org.uk.

Cold snap fails to halt restoration work!

2009-02-03T04:05:00.000-08:00

Whilst most of the UK grinds to a halt in the current cold snap, contractors are hard at work preparing the Mountsorrel Railway trackbed to receive ballast kindly donated by Lafarge Aggregates.

Local digger contractor Steve Barsby has been braving the heavy snowfalls so that the project is not delayed. The hope is that by the end of the week over 1,150 metres of trackbed will effectively be ready to receive ballast! We had thought that the worst snow for 18 years would delay the project, but the determination amongst our volunteer team seems to have spread to the contractors working for us and they are as eager as we are to get the job done!

The project is also very proud to be able to offer paid work to local companies during these difficult economic times. Please support the project with a financial donation to ensure that work can continue; you can send a cheque made out to RVP Ltd, with "Mountsorrel Railway" written on the back, to 112 Balmoral Road, Mountsorrel, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE12 7EW.

We are also delighted to announce that Humphrey Perkins High School at Barrow Upon Soar, will be undertaking a series of site visits to the project to allow their students to study and learn about the history of the railway. We hope to start visits as soon as practically possible!

Latest newsletter online

2009-01-28T08:44:00.000-08:00

After taking a short break for Christmas, the Mountsorrel Railway project is back for 2009. Click the link below to see the latest newsletter, which covers recent developments, the schools project, and the ecology group that's recently been setup:

The newsletter will also be available at the GCR's Winter Steam Gala this coming weekend, when Mountsorrel Railway volunteers will be on trains and at Rothley station to tell visitors more about the project. We hope to see you there!

Trackbed preparation and ecology group begin

2008-12-19T00:16:00.000-08:00

Steve Barsby, a local digger contractor, has been on site preparing the trackbed near to the GCR junction in readiness for ballast laying to commence early next year.

The first 150m of the trackbed have been scraped back to reveal the original ballast bed; holes and soft areas have been stabilised where necessary. Contractors will return (for free!) in January to extend this work half way along the trackbed towards Bond Lane. This will form the first phase of ballast laying and will give us a length of almost 1km to lay track over.

A local supporter from Seagrave has also offered to create the wildlife habitats for us. These will be created at various intervals along the side the trackbed and are aimed at increasing the biodiversity of the wildlife along the railway corridor. This is the first of many initiatives devised by our parallel ecology group.

Work has also started on a OO gauge scale model of the Bond Lane halt we hope to build. When finished this static portable model will help us to illustrate how the halt will fit into it's surroundings. This will be a great promotional tool for the project which we can take to galas, events and shows to publicise the project.

If you would like to become involved, or to support the Mountsorrel Railway, please contact the relevant volunteers listed below:

Railway restoration and history - Steve Cramp steve@mountsorrelrailway.org.uk
Ecology group - Amanda Bolton amanda@mountsorrelrailway.org.uk
To donate - George Overton george@mountsorrelrailway.org.uk

We would like to thank you for reading our website and supporting the project. We wish all our supporters a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Quorn village magazine article

2008-12-04T02:28:00.000-08:00

We are pleased to announce that The Quorndon village magazine has just run a four page article on the project!

page 1 (lo res)
page 2 (lo res)
page 3 (lo res)
page 4 (lo res)

The Quorndon is the quarterly magazine for the village of Quorn. It's an A4 size glossy, very well respected and read publication. We think that this is one of the best written and presented articles that's been printed about the project so far and are very grateful to The Quorndon for running the article.

The Quorndon has kindly allowed us to reproduce the article for our website readers.

The article is reproduced, with permission, from the Winter 2008 edition of The Quorndon. © 2008 The Quorndon. Further reproduction prohibited without written permission.

Mountsorrel Railway stump removal complete!

2008-11-25T07:28:00.000-08:00

Thanks to J. McCann (Nottingham) Ltd, last Saturday stump removal was finally completed over the full length of the trackbed, all the way to the end of the line at Bond Lane!

The stumps that have been removed are mostly being used to create wildlife habitats at the side of the railway. Not only will these provide a home to a varied selection of animals, birds and insects, but the additional wildlife will be another point of interest for passengers riding on the rebuilt railway.

The development of these habitats is the first project for our new ecology volunteer group.

The ecology group will operate separately, but in parallel, to the railway reconstruction work, utilising a different volunteer group mainly made up of local people with either a professional or casual interest in ecology.

The purpose of the ecology group is to both study and encourage the diversity of wildlife that exists along the Mountsorrel Railway corridor. The group's aim is to specifically encourage species of wildlife that would have been native to the railway corridor during the original operating life of the railway. This includes types of wild flowers, birds and animals.

If you would like to become involved with the ecology group please send an email to: amanda@mountsorrelrailway.org.uk.

Last Saturday we had a visit from railway photographer Clive Hanley and railway video cameraman Mike Snow. Clive has kindly made his photos available for viewing at:

http://clive-hanley.fotopic.net/c1615526.html

Mike has also put a video up on YouTube showing work on the Mountsorrel Railway. This can be found at:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=JZudjljynDw

Reconstruction work on the branch line over the coming weeks will focus on surveying, profiling and grading with a view to laying ballast early in the New Year.

If you would like to support the project then please send your donation cheque, payable to "RVP Ltd", with "Mountsorrel Railway" written on the back, to 112 Balmoral Road, Mountsorrel, Loughborough LE12 7EW.

Wood Lane bridge missing stone replaced!

2008-11-18T06:33:00.000-08:00

Only six months ago you could almost be forgiven for passing over the road bridge on Wood Lane and not realising that there was even a bridge there!

Over the last few months our volunteer team have worked to restore this elegant Mountsorrel Railway granite stone bridge to its former glory.

Back in the summer we cleared the masses of ivy and other vegetation that was engulfing and gradually damaging the stone work of the bridge. We were also very grateful to Leicestershire County Council who assisted with work to protect the bridge.

Once the bridge was visible again, it was impossible not to notice the missing granite capping stone that had become dislodged some ten years ago and lay on the trackbed below.

Of the original total cost of building the bridge, half was attributed to the eight hand carved, one tonne, granite capping stones that ornately decorated the bridge, four on each side. Each stone is a work of art and bears testament to the skill of the stone mason who would have painstakingly carved each one with his hammer and chisel.

The missing stone had become quite a focal point of interest with local villagers and we were often asked when we were going to replace it.

We are only a volunteer community project with minimal funds so it was quite a challenge to find a company with the skills and equipment to recover and replace the stone at a reasonable price.

We are very grateful to J. McCann (Nottingham) Ltd who agreed to undertake the work for us at zero cost to the project. Our volunteers repaired and rebuilt the damaged parapet wall where the stone would sit and the lift was scheduled for November 15th.

The stone had to be recovered from the trackbed floor underneath the bridge by construction fork lift and transported extremely carefully along the trackbed to Swithland Sidings, where it could be loaded on to a low loader to be transported back to the bridge.

It took several hours to recover and transport the stone and by 2:30pm we were ready to perform the lift via a small HIAB crane.

The stone was soon cemented and secured back in place and we are pleased to say that the bridge now looks complete again.

We are very grateful to the local people who gathered to watch the lift of the stone and who expressed their support for our ongoing restoration work. Knowing that Mountsorrel cares about its history, and that we have the support of its residents, inspires us to push on with the restoration of the Mountsorrel Railway.

The bridge still requires further repair and repointing work but the stone lift is a major step in restoring it to its former glory.

If you would like to support the restoration of the Mountsorrel Railway please consider donating to the project. The Mountsorrel Railway project is committed to restoring and preserving the Mountsorrel Railway but our work can only continue with your financial and practical support.

New photos from talented photographers

2008-11-17T04:40:00.001-08:00

Two local photographers, Dan Norcott and Andy Stafford, took some really good atmospheric photos of the Mountsorrel Railway trackbed last week. The photos will help get some publicity for the project.

Dan's are here and his photography website is at http://www.dannorcott.co.uk. Andy's photos are here.

We're very grateful for Dan and Andy's support. If you'd like to contribute to the project, in any way, please let us know by e-mailing george@mountsorrelrailway.org.uk. Many thanks.

Trackbed preparation work commences

2008-11-11T08:14:00.000-08:00

Saturday November 8th saw the commencement of stump removal and trackbed preparation work courtesy of J. McCann (Nottingham) Ltd, who are undertaking the work at no cost to the project. We are extremely grateful to them for providing this donation.

Progress was swift with over half of the remaining stumps being removed. J. McCann will be back again this coming Saturday to complete the work which will see the entire length of the trackbed cleared and ready for detailed surveying.

McCann will also be further assisting the project by lifting the missing capping stone back onto the Wood Lane bridge for us this coming Saturday. The missing stone was featured by DJ Ben Jackson on his recent Radio Leicester breakfast show recently.

The bridge has been repaired by volunteers and is now ready to receive the one tonne, hand carved granite stone, which was dislodged from the bridge around 10 years ago and now lies on the trackbed underneath.

The architecture of the granite bridge is very elegant and the missing stone has generated much local interest. In order to prevent crowds gathering to watch the lift and in the interest of public safety, the exact time of the lift must remain confidential. A full update will follow next week.

Thanks for your support

Mountsorrel Railway project steps up a gear!

2008-11-06T07:32:00.000-08:00

Project fundraising continues in earnest and we have been very fortunate to receive a substantial offer of assistance from J. McCann (Nottingham) Ltd.

They have offered to remove most, if not all, of the remaining stumps along the trackbed for us. In addition to this they have also offered to provide dumpers and operators for laying ballast in the next stage of the project reconstruction. Some of you will have noticed the missing capping stone on the Wood Lane bridge (see map here); McCann will also be resetting the stone back onto the bridge for us. The missing half tonne hand carved granite stone, which lies on the trackbed below, has become quite a focal point with the local community, particularly since we cleared the ivy from the bridge, so replacing the stone should bring much needed local publicity to the project.

We are extremely grateful to J. McCann (Nottingham) Ltd for providing this help, which represents a saving to the project of many thousands of pounds.

Stump removal work has already been scheduled and will be starting this coming Saturday, November 8th.

This offer of support is in addition to the very substantial donation of ballast that we were able to secure from Lafarge Mountsorrel quarry earlier this year.

We have also been receiving many personal donations to the project. These have been arriving at our fundraising HQ on an almost daily basis in recent weeks. We would like to pass on a very big thank you to all those, both personal and organisations, who have donated and supported the project so far.

In recent months, the monetary value of the offers of material, plant and labour, together with the financial donations we have received, now amounts to almost £40,000! This has been raised independently of the GCR and general RVP funds to ensure that the project doesn’t have any negative financial impact on other work currently being undertaken.

The project is now at a critical stage where every pound we can raise really makes a difference. Over the coming months the trackbed will be transformed, early next year the first sections of the trackbed should see ballast laid leaving the trackbed ready for track laying to start.

Although we have been fortunate to attract the offers of help and donations we have received to date, much more is needed to keep up the high rate of progress that the project is experiencing.

Please can I ask you to consider making a donation to the project? Large or small, all donations are very much valued. The project is run entirely by volunteers and has no overheads so every pound donated will go directly to furthering the reconstruction of the railway. Please send your donation cheques made payable to “RVP Ltd” with “Mountsorrel Railway” written on the back, to 112 Balmoral Road, Mountsorrel, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE12 7EW.

Thank you.

Google map of the route and Flickr photos

2008-10-25T00:15:00.000-07:00

View Larger Map

Also please see the photos online at Flickr of some of the volunteer work so far to clear the route. These photos include geographical information (approximate latitude and longitude), so that a further map of the route can be generated.

As ever we need donations to recreate the Mountsorrel Railway. Contact us if you'd like to donate, or print out our donation and Gift Aid form. Thank you.

Late October update

2008-10-22T11:57:00.000-07:00

This week Steve Cramp, Mountsorrel Railway project coordinator, had a meeting on site with the managing director of a Nottingham based company who would like to help the project. We are very pleased to announce that he agreed to provide, free of charge, up to four weekends work with an excavator especially suited to removing tree stumps. This should allow us to remove all the remaining stumps, of which there are many, from the Great Central Railway (GCR) junction to the Wood Lane bridge!

It doesn’t stop there either! He also agreed to provide the loan of two dumpers and drivers for a couple of weekends to ballast the trackbed as far as possible towards Mountsorrel.

Lastly he also agreed to lift a missing capping stone back onto the bridge at Wood Lane. Although seemingly quite insignificant, the eight hand carved granite capping stones represented half of the total cost of constructing the bridge back in 1896. The missing stone, which lies intact on the trackbed under the bridge, has become quite a focal point within the local community. Replacing the stone on the bridge will generate a lot of local support and interest, which is obviously good for the project.

All this free work is of great benefit to the project and will save us many thousands of pounds so we are very grateful indeed to the help that this company is providing.

The help came about through a business associate of one of our Mountsorrel resident volunteers. If we hadn’t taken this project to the hearts of the local community, this offer of help would simply have not materialized.

The team are now feverishly beavering away to ready the formation for the stump removal work which could start as early as November 8th. We are also organizing preparation of the holding area for the delivery of the 1,900 tonnes of ballast that Lafarge have kindly agreed to donate. We obviously can’t utilize the free dumper offer until we have the ballast!

With survey work also proceeding at a pace, so that the trackbed can be pegged out and the levels set, we could potentially have the first 950m of the route ballasted and ready for track very soon indeed. The cost to get to this point will have been very minimal indeed considering the position the project will then be at.

Fundraising continues, so do consider supporting the project by making a donation. Please send a cheque payable to “RVP Ltd”, with “Mountsorrel Railway” written on the back, to 112 Balmoral Road, Mountsorrel, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE12 7EW.

Finally some fine words about the project from Nigel Harris, GCR Director, from the Great Central Railway discussion group: "it's probably one of the best thought-through projects I've ever seen on the GCR".

October 2008 newsletter online

2008-10-16T05:53:00.000-07:00

Click here for our latest newsletter.

It covers the completion of the trackbed clearance phase of the project, the historical recreations that are planned with local schools, and future developments.

The newsletter was distributed at last weekend's Steam Gala at the Great Central Railway, and we are very grateful for the donations we received from visitors to the event.

GCR’s plans for Mountsorrel Railway

2008-09-17T02:12:00.000-07:00

From the Mountsorrel Post, #24, September 2008, pp8-10:

Some readers may not be aware that the village once had its own railway: called the Mountsorrel Railway, it was built to serve the nearby granite quarries.

Local resident Steve Cramp is currently in the process of writing a book about the history of this industrial railway and is also heading up, on behalf of the Great Central Railway (GCR), a project to restore a section of the railway as a working museum of the important part the railway once played in Mountsorrel village life.

On July 8 Steve organised a historical walk along part of the disused railway trackbed. The purpose of the walk was to raise local awareness of the project, to allow local people a chance to learn about the railway’s history and to hear about the recreations that are planned for the rebuilt railway.

“I’m very pleased to be part of this project to restore part of the Mountsorrel Railway” said Steve. “18 months ago when I set out to research and write a book I never dreamt that I would actually end up being part of a volunteer community project to actually recreate Mountsorrel’s history”.

The walk was arranged at the suggestion of the Mountsorrel Heritage Group and was very well attended with over 50 people taking part. The group walked along the trackbed viewing the clearance work that has already been undertaken. Steve would stop at intervals to explain the various archaeology that still remains and also to talk about the recreations that are planned.

“Our recreations are quite ambitious” continued Steve. “I have put together what we term as the schools project”.

The schools project is a plan to involve children from the three local primary schools of Mountsorrel, Quorn and Rothley. “Far too much local history becomes lost as people grow old and are no longer with us” Steve continued. “If we can create an interest with our younger generation it may encourage them to ask more questions about the past and to look beyond the now to realise that Mountsorrel, and indeed the world, was once very different.

“We will go into the schools to explain about the railway and the effect it had on village life, in particular that of the children. We will also tell the children about the annual Sunday School excursions where the children would ride in the railway wagons, to the quarry owner’s house, where they would be entertained for the day. We hope to allow today’s children the chance to recreate a static version of this annual event in Mountsorrel’s history”.

The GCR plans to restore and repaint three historical railway wagons into the livery of the former Mountsorrel Granite company.

“15 competition winners from each school will be invited up to Rothley station where they will be allowed to get hands on with the restoration of the wagons under full supervision. When the wagons are eventually finished the children will be invited back dressed in Edwardian costumes. The wagons will be posed on a section of the rebuilt railway, we hope with the last surviving steam loco from the quarry – Elizabeth. The children will be allowed to sit in the wagons effectively recreating the Sunday School scene from 70-90 years ago. Old style black and white photos of the children will be taken and presented to the schools. We will also invite along any of the surviving children that rode in the original excursions of all those years ago.

“This is one of many recreations that will be possible. The GCR also hopes to run passenger trains on the rebuilt railway. Although passengers never rode on the railway originally, being able to on the rebuilt railway will be an interesting new attraction at the GCR. It also allows passengers to experience the history of the railway first hand” Steve explained.

The project seems to have captured the imagination of the local community with most of the volunteers working on the project living locally. “Most of our volunteers have become involved because of a desire to preserve Mountsorrel’s history. We have people of all ages from children right up to the age of 76 and of both sexes. We really seem to be a project for everyone.”

Restoration work has been swift with most of the trackbed now cleared and in the process of being prepared to receive track. The work is being undertaken entirely by unpaid volunteers in their spare time. If you would like to get involved then please contact Steve Cramp either at steve@mountsorrelrailway.org.uk or in the evenings on 0116 230 1374.

Local historian Noel Wakeling has provided the following details about the Mountsorrel Railway

2008-09-17T02:09:00.000-07:00

From the Mountsorrel Post, #24, September 2008, pp10-11:

In the days before television I would sit enthralled and fascinated listening to my dad telling me about the Mountsorrel Granite Company (MGC) quarrying and its operations. A great treat for me was to be taken to see my granddad at work who was a locomotive driver on his Peckett Loco Doris 11. Sometimes he would wave to me as he travelled over the bridge in the main street, next to the 1860 bridge and onward to Barrow on Soar, with his wagons loaded with stone.

Quarrying had taken place in various locations around Mountsorrel: Buddon Wood, Hawcliffe Hill, Nunckley Hill, Cocklow Wood etc. Broadhill became the main number one quarry. The MGC Group also had quarries in south west Leicestershire, namely Stoney Stanton, Enderby, Potters Marsden, Huncote, Little Pit and Clint Hill.

My dad was a time served carpenter and joiner with the company but later moved over to the engineering and maintenance side, visiting these south Leicestershire quarries to sort out various problems from time to time, as well as at Mountsorrel, as part of his job.

It wasn’t until I was in my forties that I started to delve into the activities of the MGC and its history.

The Martin era: owners of Mountsorrel Granite Co for 150 years plus

The Martins had taken over the quarrying under a lease arrangement from landowner the Earl of Lanesborough of Swithland Hall in 1842. It became a limited company in 1875.

Horses and carts were the mode of transport for internal use, and local deliveries, and were also used to take stone in its various forms to the main line station at Sileby or Barrow on Soar.

The canal system was being extensively used, using the company’s own barges and contractors. It was a very time consuming operation. Eventually a railway system was a necessity, both in and out of the quarry itself and being far sighted it was decided on main line track dimension of 4 feet 8.5 inches, standard gauge throughout.

The railway network at one time extended into the old previously worked Buddon Wood quarry with proper manually operated level crossing gates across Wood Lane and a bridge nearby. With offices in Mountsorrel, Welford Place Leicester, and Caxton Place in London, stone in all its capacities was being sold throughout the UK.

Not only was the stone known for its hardness but one of its most saleable attributes was its pink colour and it became known nationally both for roads, building and monumental work (i.e. gravestones and war memorials). It became obvious that a more expedient method was required to get the stone to the Midland Counties Railway. Many hours of discussion took place between the main interested parties, namely the MGC, the Earl of Lanesborough and John Ellis, Chairman of the Midland Counties Railway. In 1858 an Act of Parliament was applied for, and passed, for a branch line as an extension to the Midland Counties Railway. The main sponsor was the fifth Earl of Lanesborough. The Act stated that the new railway line over the Soar valley will be known as the Mountsorrel Railway and that it will be beneficial to the inhabitants of Mountsorrel, surrounding villages and granite quarries. The railway will terminate at Mountsorrel north end. The drawings for the said branch line, with all its bridges and ducts, were deposited with the Clerk of the Peace for the County of Leicester at 12 noon on 30 November 1858.

With the Act of Parliament passed, and all necessary arrangements in hand, construction started and was given a four year period to complete. The engineer in charge was John Addison. The junction on the main line at Barrow on Soar was 21.5 miles from Derby and 29 miles from Rugby.

The Mountsorrel Railway

The red brick single arch bridge, with the date in blue brick built into either side and known to locals as the 1860, was constructed with a 40 foot span and 16 foot to the centre of the arch over the canal. It is reputed to be the longest single span brick bridge in England. At the same time the construction of a raised embankment was taking place across the Soar valley with periodic culverts to allow flood water to flow through.

By 1861 the new railway line was up and running and carrying in excess of 200,000 tonnes of stone per annum. Canal borne loads were severely curtailed although they did continue for a while.

Many people think that the Mountsorrel Railway was owned by the Mountsorrel Granite Company but this was not so. It was leased on a quarterly basis from the Earl of Lanesborough who had financed the project and was responsible for its upkeep. Periodic inspections by engineers form the Midland Railway would take place.

1896, some 35 years later, saw the building of Swithland Reservoir and the Great Central Railway through Leicestershire, spanning the reservoir on a blue brick viaduct. At the same time as the Central track was being laid, the necessary connection for the forthcoming rail link to Mountsorrel was put in place.

The MGC, now a limited company, with an extension to the previous Act and under the same arrangements, constructed the railway link out to Swithland sidings, giving a complete link from the Midland main line at Barrow on Soar to the Great Central, a distance of 3.5 to 4 miles.

In 1959 the Mountsorrel Granite Company Ltd was floated on the stock market and was acquired in its entirety by Messrs Redland Aggregates Ltd. It was about this time that the rail network ceased.

The locomotives that had played such an important part in the history of the company, with names like The Baron, Doris, Robbie, Willie, Kate, Gerald, Lady Winifred, The Countess, Violet, Kathleen and Elizabeth were to be scrapped, or had been along with the track and rolling stock. Elizabeth however managed to be saved and ended up in Rutland Railway Museum. It has now been bought and is in private hands for restoration.

August update from RVP

2008-08-12T14:57:00.000-07:00

Clearance continues on the formation of this former branch line. The volunteer team have concentrated recent efforts on the section beyond RVP's boundary, running past Nunckley Hill quarry, under Wood Lane, and ending at a point just short of the main (working) quarry at Bond Lane.

This section is owned by Lafarge, but they have granted permission for it to be cleared to make the formation available for future use. The volunteer team's willingness to work with Lafarge on this no doubt encouraged the significant donation of ballast which RVP will receive in due course.

With clearance work nearing completion on the Lafarge section, the team will return to RVP property to continue preparation of the trackbed. In the meantime track design is being finalised ready to move forward.

Historical walk

2008-07-03T06:53:00.000-07:00

The former branch line which ran north east from the Great Central Railway's Swithland Yard towards the village of Mountsorrel was built in 1899 and fell out of use in the 1960s.

The track was taken up in the 1960s and the route abandoned.

The quarry it served is still operating, taking its stone out by a conveyor belt over another branch line formation.

Working at weekends, volunteers have cleared a distance of around 900 metres which had obviously become overgrown with vegetation.

Thanks to a generous donation of ballast from the quarry itself they are soon to start relaying the track.

It is ironic that similar stone to that which was once carried over the railway will now go underneath it to help in the rebuild.

Steve Cramp, who coordinates activities, is planning a historical walk on July 8. The walk will start and finish at the gateway of the Lord Lanesborough former private coal siding.

During the walk Steve will explain how the branch line used to operate and point out the various historical points of interest along the way.

He will also explain how the rebuilt railway will operate and discuss the recreations which they hope to stage.

The walk is open to anyone interested and there is no charge although donations to the Mountsorrel Railway project would be appreciated.

The walk will start at 7pm and last for between 75 and 90 minutes. Everyone is welcome and there is no need to book.

The project is still keen to recruit more volunteers and anyone interested should contact Steve Cramp on 0116 2301374 or by e-mail at steve@mountsorrelrailway.org.uk.

Great Central Railway press release

2008-06-12T07:06:00.000-07:00

Generous donation of ballast from Quarry company gives boost to track laying

Community involved with rebuild project – school children set to recreate Edwardian day out

Coming soon to the Great Central Railway, 900 metres of brand new track! A former branch line which once carried millions of tons of stone from a local quarry is being partly re-laid. The project is being undertaken jointly by the GCR and resident group Railway Vehicle Preservations Ltd.

The branch line ran north east from the Great Central Railway’s Swithland Yard towards the village of Mountsorrel. It was built at the same time as the main line, opening in 1899. It fell out of use in the 1950s, the track was taken up in the 60s and the route abandoned - until now! The Quarry it served is still operating, taking its stone out by a conveyor belt over another branch line formation. Working at weekends, volunteers have cleared the 900 metres and thanks to a generous donation of ballast from the Quarry itself, track laying is due to start soon.

Heading up the project for the GCR and RVP Ltd is Mountsorrel resident Steve Cramp. He said, “We’re very grateful to Lafarge Aggregates, who operate the quarry for agreeing to donate 2000 tons of ballast. This will form a bed for the re-laid railway to sit upon. Naturally it’s exciting to have the support of a major company and the fact the line used to serve their quarry makes an interesting connection with the past as well.”

The new railway will add another aspect to the GCR, demonstrating how freight trains used to arrive in Swithland Yard from the quarry, their wagons ready for shunting, so the stone could be sent onwards by train across the country. The local community have become involved in the rebuilding with even a group of school children helping to clear the overgrown route.

Steve continued, “There are important educational aspects to the branch, hence the tie up with schools. Village life was very different a century ago. Some Mountsorrel children, from the age of just nine, would work in the Quarry pushing wagons around. Rebuilding the branch provides an illustration not just of railway operation but rural life. It wasn’t all hard work though. Once a year, the Martin family who owned the quarry opened the doors of their house to entertain families. Children would ride in the wagons, pulled by steam engine to get there!”

Community support for the project doesn’t end with the clearing of the trackbed. Three wagons at the Great Central are due to repainted by local groups into the colours of the Mountsorrel Granite Company. An original vintage engine which ran over the branch line still survives and its planned to eventually recreate an original train from the branch and arrange for school children in period costume to pose with it!

The GCR also hopes on special occasions to provide the chance for visitors to ride over the branch line, albeit in carriages – not wagons!

Tim Deal, Senior Planning and Estates Manager for Lafarge Aggregates said, “We’ve been impressed with the work done so far to clear the original route of the branch line. It’s good to be able to support this Great Central Railway project. As a major Leicestershire employer, we take pride in getting involved with the community. It just so happens the stone, which once was carried over the railway, will now go underneath it to help in the rebuild.”

The branch line trackbed continues beyond the 900m section being restored, as far as Bond Lane on the outskirts of Mountsorrel. Lafarge and the Great Central Railway are working in partnership to clear this further section of vegetation. The total length of the line is 1.8km (1.2 miles)

Steve concluded, “Restoring this lost branch line has turned into a genuine cross community activity with local schools and the Rothley Youth Group, besides the GCR, RVP and the welcome support from Lafarge Aggregates. Tracklaying should begin later this year and will progress as volunteer support and resources permit. I’d be delighted to welcome any assistance. There are a number of jobs which can be done from home even if you can’t spare the time to get involved with the physical reconstruction.”

If you can spare a few hours of your time then please contact Steve Cramp, either by email steve@mountsorrelrailway.org.uk or by phone on 0116 2301374.

ENDS
WORDS: 749

FURTHER INFORMATION:
Details on the above and all forthcoming events can be found on the Great Central Railway's extensive website: http://www.greatcentralrailway.com/

Additional information can also be obtained from the Booking Office, Loughborough Central Station, (Daily 9.00 - 5.30) on 01509 230726

NOTES

Voted number 12 on the list of the 50 greatest railway journeys in the world the Great Central Railway is the UK's only double track, main line heritage railway. It’s the only place in the world where full size steam engines can be seen passing each other – just as it was when steam ruled the rails. The preserved railway has been operating for over 30 years, and is manned by around 700 volunteers and a small team of permanent staff. Originally a main line from Sheffield to London, the 8 mile preserved section between Loughborough and Leicester is fully operational and the 4 stations reflect a different period of the railway's 109 year history.

Trains run every weekend of the year, bank holidays and daily in the summer. In addition, First Class Restaurant Car Services provide 4 or 6 course meals, whilst travelling between Loughborough and Leicester or childhood dreams can come true with a Drive a Train Experience. We also run a number of family events, including “Days Out with Thomas the Tank Engine”, Bonfire Night and Santa Specials.

The railway has won a number of awards including “independent railway of the year”, and a gold award for the East Midlands best visitor experience and is a quality assured visitor attraction as designated by Enjoy England.

Can you help?

2008-05-13T06:41:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered what Mountsorrel used to be like in times gone by? How the village has changed and what life used to be like for the people that lived here many years ago? Our village has a rich and varied history. The local granite quarries and the extensive railway network that used to serve them were once the cornerstone of Mountsorrel life.

Over twelve months ago, village resident Steve Cramp started researching part of that history with the intention of writing a book about the Mountsorrel Railway. This has now developed even further into a scheme to rebuild and preserve part of the Railway. The purpose of this is to allow historical scenes from Mountsorrel’s past to be recreated for current and future generation to enjoy.

We also aim to recreate working replicas of three original Mountsorrel Granite Company wagons. It is also hoped to bring back the last surviving Mountsorrel steam loco. We also have a scheme to involve the local primary schools of Mountsorrel, Quorn and Rothley in the recreation of local historical events that involved the railway.

The project is being undertaken by an enthusiastic team of unpaid volunteers, most of who live locally and have a desire to see Mountsorrel’s history preserved for current and future generations to enjoy. Would you like to be part of this volunteer team and help to make this vision a reality? Our team consists of both sexes and we age from 10 to 76 so there is a task for everyone, regardless of gender, age and ability! If you can spare a few hours on the occasional Saturday please get in touch with Steve Cramp by phone on 0116 2301374 or by email at steve@mountsorrelrailway.org.uk. We can promise you a very rewarding time with a friendly group of “guys and gals” to work with.

Progress has already been swift with the trackbed being cleared and in the process of being prepared for track. We have received a donation of rail and other materials and hope to start laying track later this year.

If you are unable to volunteer but would still like to support the project then please consider donating. Every penny donated will go directly towards the purchase of track and associated materials. We are a registered charity so if you are a UK taxpayer the chancellor will also top up your donation! Please contact George Overton at george@mountsorrelrailway.org.uk if you would like to donate.