The Great Central Mainline meets the M45 Motorway
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- Опубликовано: 26 мар 2024
- Welcome to Part 7 of the Ghosts of the Great Central Railway Mainline series.
We're on the approach to Rugby now. Obviously the M45 motorway arrived a long time after the GCR railway - more than 50 years later. The bridge was built in the 1950s, therefore the bridge needed to be built to span the new carriageway. With the railway closing in 1966, the life of the bridge as a railway bridge was fairly short. The abandoned bridge now sits derelict and although access can be gained onto the disused railway trackbed, it remains overgrown.
The M45 is one of the quitest motorways in the UK.
**About this series**
We are visiting various locations on the GCR between Culworth Junction in Northamptonshire and Rugby in Warwickshire. Visiting former station sites, bridges, junctions, old infrastructure, viaducts, tunnels and some other interesting stuff.
Great Central Mainline was built as the London Extension of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire railway. Opening in 1899, it was designed to be as straight as possible with as little gradient as possible. Speed was the aim and express trains travelled between London Marylebone, Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester. It was the last UK mainline to be built before HS1 over a century later.
It thrived initially, however with a lack of upkeep, neglect and dwindling usage, it was mothballed during the great railway rationalisation of Dr Beeching in the 1960s - known as the Beeching Axe. Lost railway artefacts and relics are left scattered along the route.
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Love this series! Thank you
Cheers Jamie.
Glad you've been enjoying it.
I'm starting filming a new GCR series next week.
@@WobblyRunner Looking forward to that!
Thank you for the walking tour as always. See you on the next, Paul. 🇬🇧👍🙂🇺🇸
Thanks Martin. All the best.
See you the next one this weekend :)
I walked that stretch towards the end of last summer and I'm surprised you didn't comment on how increadibly slippery those square tiles on the surface of the bridge are. The were like trying to walk on ice!
Also, while the approach from the south is fine, once beyond the bridge the embankment is extremely heavily overgrown. I was several times reduced to having to crawl on my hands and knees for anything up to 50 yards at a time and got ripped to shreads by the hawthorns and brambles. In the end I had to give up and climbed down off the embankment and across the fields to regain the road.
I didn't notice the slippery tiles. But you're right about the heavily overgrown banking. Good job giving it a go 👍🙂. Its sometimes worth the effort isn't it, despite the cuts and stings... but sometimes not.
The M45 was very busy and congested when the M1 ended at Crick. When the M6 was built the traffic went that way instead.
Hi Paul, short but sweet! I cant get over how little traffic uses that motorway must be great to drive on might be able to get your foot down. This series has flown by. Take care see you soon. ❤😊👍
😄 some contrast to the M1 isn't it.
Yeah it's really flown by. More on the pipeline though 🙂
Take care.
Wish all roads were like this Paul another good video see you for the next one.
Thanks Chris. I far cry from the m1 😆
Short and Sweet Paul but interesting all the same, the GCR London extension railway is becoming one of my favourite disused railways, I’m slightly surprised the highways agencies have allowed these old bridges with closed lines on them still to stand but still good that they have.
Thanks again mate.👍
In some places the bridges are in use by farmers. In others a footpath or other right of way now use the bridge.
i suspect it's cheaper to leave it, if it's in good condition. I guess that bridge will out live me. Closing the motorway etc and paying the costs would probably easier to keep it. It's a shame they cant make better use of this and the M1 bridge further north. They're just wasted at the moment.
@@WobblyRunner Good points there mate.👍
M45...apparently it's one of the best roads in the UK for those who own a Suzuki Hayabusa.....Sadly I only have a Kawasaki ZZR1400
😂 and no average speed cameras
A grand tour wR Style..
Is that a official public footpath? Do farm 🚜 use it? .
😄
I don't think so. Itsa little overgrown. There's a footpath close by though
I wonder why the bridge is layered in engineering bricks? So would the ballast sit on top of the bricks ? I haven’t seen this before how odd.
I believe so. I wonder if the blue bricks were to protect the bridge from water? They must add some weight to the structure.
I was thinking the same. Wondering if beneath the ballast there has to be something to channel rainwater off to gullies and then into drainage pipes away from the structure. Otherwise it would just seep and drip through onto the road all across the span.
Any chance that this abandoned railway could be restored ?
Not without hundreds of CPO's and moving a shopping centre.
There doesnt seem to be much appetite for it. Even sections which have been suggested in the past. Though there's so much stuff missing and development on the trackbed in places, would be really hard.
We know the UK is falling, where will it end?
Travel south past the Southam Daventry road & if you a really lucky a gamekeeper will show you his shotgun.
Oh dear
I wouldn’t be surprised if HS2 goes the same way 😂