HS2 goes ahead

[S.A.C. Martin]

From the above link:

Environmentalists have condemned the link on the grounds it does not involve a bamboo rickshaw ferrying passengers over fields to avoid waking up a badger.

I should laugh, but it's rather close to the truth, of some students I used to know at Loughborough University!

[Mickey]

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[Iron Duke]

GCR?.... I'm sure many agree, well said Micky.
Former name MSL, some critics at the time said "Money Sunk & Lost"
GCR1 & 2 attached - looks familiar.

HS2? "Hydrogen Sulphide" if you ask me it stinks...

[Mickey]

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[Iron Duke]

Yes, me too..........
I once read that it did not have any level crossings, is this true?

[Mickey]

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[52D]

Tried a post on a couple of sites asking if the GCR had any crossings but got no positive replies. Most of the track bed is intact with a few bridges needed to be re done. Im sure the route of the old GCR could re generate development in parts of the country not covered by regeneration on a large scale.
Include in this project a "cross rail electrified service" between Hull/Grimsby and Liverpool via Woodhead. Then a furher cross country route electrified Newcastle and Carlisle.These two cross links would be able to assist in re routing trains if there were problems in the system.

[manna]

G'Day Gents

A lot of the 'country' GCR is, as you say still there, but in the cities, nearly all gone, Nottingham 'Victoria' could be a bit of a problem,

I suppose you could convert the M1 into a railway for less money

manna

[Mickey]

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[Bryan]

If the French TGV lines are anything to go by, Gradients are just about irrelevant.
The ones I saw last year looked a lot steeper than 1 in 100

[PGBerrie]

The high-speed route between Frankfurt Airport and Bonn Siegburg is also like a switchback for long stretches.

Peter

[Coboman]

Yes, me too..........
I once read that it did not have any level crossings, is this true?

That may well have been true Iron Duke it sort of rings a vague bell the route was built to a 'continental loading guage' i believe as well?. I must say i wasn't a great student of the GCR i was only a teenager at the time and i liked there locos & s/boxes plus i had bought the Ian Allen book THE GREAT CENTRAL RAILWAY ALBUM (amongst several other books in that series) and read up abit about the GCR at that time.

There were no crossings on it south of Nottingham and although it wasn't built to any particular continental loading gauge as there wasn't a standard at the time (Berne Gauge first appeared in 1914) it was built with sufficient clearances so the tracks could be slewed to take a much larger gauge trains. The only big dissadvantages of trying to reopen the London Extension are the fact the route has gone in the centres of Leicester and Nottingham. Very short sighted to let them get wrecked like that.

[Boris]

One of the daft ideas that flumaxed me was the Sheffield station being at Meadow Hall so to get to Sheffield Midland or the city centre needs a 20 minute tram ride at extra expence.

So I aks where is the time saving there?


Also somwhere earlier in this thread was a mention that tgv generate power back into the lines when going down hill.

So did the Manchester Wath Sheffield route.

In days gone by it was said that Sir Nigel had estimated that he could get a coal train from Wath to Mottram for 1/6p old money on the 'lecky bill if the track was in full use both ways

[Mickey]

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[PinzaC55]

Or they could of course electrify existing rail lines and reopen a selected few such as the Leamside and York - Beverley?