Of all the principal constituent companies grouped in 1923 to form the ‘Big Four’, two stand out as having lost a substantial proportion of their route mileage to closures: the Great North of Scotland Railway and the Great Central Railway. However, the main line of the GNoS from Aberdeen to Keith is still busy today – indeed, its only route still open – whereas just fragments of the GC main line from Manchester to London Marylebone survive.
The Great Central main line and the Midland Railway main line to London St. Pancras crossed at Loughborough. When visiting family there as a young boy around 1950, my father would take me to Allsopps Crossing, a short distance south of Loughborough Midland station, where we could see the trains on both routes. The Midland, being four-tracked, was busier but the ‘Jubilees’ on Midland expresses were outclassed by the A3 Pacifics on the GC, although on freight the GC only had 2-8-0s whereas the Midland had Garratts. When I was old enough to travel unaccompanied I found the fastest GC trains to better the Midland between Leicester and Loughborough, or Loughborough and Nottingham. The GC had the advantage in distance: 10 versus 12½ miles and 13½ versus 15 miles respectively.
The GC appeared to be there for ever -and in 1954 the section from Manchester to Sheffield via Woodhead had become Britain's first fully-electric main line, with all traffic passenger, goods and minerals, worked by electric traction. (The Southern Railway electric main lines retained steam traction for freight.) Little did we know that within fifteen years most of it would be gone – not just secondary and branch lines, but the main line too.
Part One of this article outlines the development and growth of the Great Central and its place in our railway network. Part Two will review the demise of most of the GC route mileage.
The Great Central is fortunate in having a comprehensive written history, the monumental three-volume work by George Dow. It covers the period from the incorporation of the first antecedent in 1836 to integration of the GC into the London & North Eastern Railway at grouping in 1923. This source has been of great value in compiling the notes which follow.
Main line via Woodhead
Early schemes for a Sheffield & Manchester Railway, including one engineered by George Stephenson, relied on the use of inclined planes to overcome the barrier of the Pennines and came to nothing. The success of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway led to influential men forming a Provisional Committee in 1836 to promote a route planned by Charles Vignoles. With a two-mile summit tunnel this was said to be practicable for locomotives. Vignoles and Joseph Locke were both asked to make separate surveys, and following presentation of their reports it was agreed that a longer tunnel would be preferable in the interest of easier gradients.
The Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne & Manchester Railway was
