GREAT CENTRAL RAILWAY (NOTTINGHAM)
[NEWS] [HISTORY] [FUTURE] [SERVICES] [VOLUNTEER]
Welcome to the Rushcliffe Halt web site. Rushcliffe Halt is a small wayside halt station on the preserved Great Central Railway (Nottingham) situated between East Leake and Ruddington in south Nottinghamshire. It is being restored by volunteers to operational status after several decades of disuse. This web site is intended to keep people interested in Rushcliffe Halt up to date with progress and provide background information to the station.
Well, the station is back in the land of the living: passenger services have restarted on the GCR(N). The first few weeks of April have seen the "new" Gatwick Express MkII stock with the GLV driving trailer at the south end and the little pseudo-Class 07 shunter at the north end. The station has had several groups of people turning up to catch the trains from Rushcliffe, which is pleasing. In between services we've continued to nibble away at tasks around the site weather permitting - the garden area near the pway hut for example has had compost added and the first set of seeds planted. Its going to be a veg patch so we've got rhubarb, onions, carrots, radishes, rocket, corriander, potatos, chives and parsley. Lets hope they grow - and that the local bunnies don't eat them before we do. We've had good results with the daffodils supplied by Mark Fowler (which look really superb at the moment) so fingers crossed!
Some visible signs of activity at the station in the last few weeks: an area down behind the Up platform has started to be dug over ready for a garden area to appear, the fence in the corner at the top of stairs has been repaired, the cabins have been tidied ready for the start of services and the edges of the Up platform have been whitewashed (all bar about 2m of the bay platform as we ran out of paint at that point!).
Despite it being the middle of winter and no passenger services being run at the moment (the GCR(N) reopens on April 2nd 2006), the station is in use still: we're providing carparking facilities for the contractors working on the neighbouring British Gypsum plant! Of course we've also still got the gypsum freight services passing through to the unloading pad just north of the station at Hotchley Hill.
The last of the daffodils have been planted - several aching backs resulting but hopefully we'll have a good display in the spring. The station is being put to bed for the winter (water turned off to the portacabins, etc). We also spent the afternoon nailing more roofing felt onto the Up side of the barrow crossing. We've discovered that the timber crossing get slippy in wet weather and roofing felt helps stop people coming a cropper!
Mark Fowler, the GCR(N)'s Operation Manager, has generously donated several large bags of daffodil bulbs to the station to help brighten up the flower beds and embankments next year. Its going to be big job to plant them all though. Not only do we have hundreds of bulbs but the "soil" at Rushcliffe tends to be rather, er, "solid". Pick axes out boys!
The weeds are in full growth at the moment so its a constant battle at the station to try to keep them down. Some generously donated lawnmowers help but some of the area of the stations can only really be attacked with scythes and slashing bars. Keeps us fit anyway! The cut weeds and grass are being place in compost heaps that will hopefully allow us to improve the soil structure in the borders around the station (the clay needs improving!).
Ronnie has been being very industrious again, despite the high temperatures, and has made a start on the down side platform fencing. Half the down platform now has a fence for the first time in 40 years. The area behind the pway hut has also had the verdant weed growth scythed back to make the station look a little neater. On Sunday 26th June the station hosted part of the "Wizard's Express" event so was filled with children running back and forth looking for answers to their puzzles.
The station was staffed on the two running days over the bank holiday (Sunday and Monday). On Sunday, in addition to the train service hauled by No. 63 Corby, we had a couple of heritage buses turn up from the Heritage Centre as a private service for some of the bus enthusiasts. On the Monday we arrived at the station to find 4 car loads of people waiting for the first train. Over the weekend a bit of painting has been done and some bulbs planted in the down side embankment. We also had a local brickie generously offer to help us to build our waiting rooms when we're ready.
The ramp down to the pway side of the hut from the platform has been levelled out a bit and extended. A few more slabs needed yet.
A start has been made at replacing the steps that provide the entrance to the toilets/waiting room/visitors centre cabin in the carpark. Unfortunately due to staffing issues up at the NTHC only one train made it to Rushcliffe Halt today, albeit steam hauled by No.63, its first return to our station hauling a passenger train.
Taking advantage of the spring sunshine the station team attacked some of the borders around the station to clean them up for new planting to go in. A start was made on installing the electrical extension under the platform as well.
We've been donated some second-hand fencing material from the GCR(S) at Loughborough, which will hopefully be erected at Rushcliffe Halt before the start of the running season.
Whilst not much has been happening outside (too cold!), relatively rapid progress has been made on the cabins. Ronnie has been giving them a pretty good makeover and we've now got a working sink (with running cold water!) in the entrance room, plus the odd L-shaped counter has been dismantled and then remantled in a more ergonomic (and less space eating) format. Today a couple of us attacked the gloss work in the toilet block, started emulsioning the entrance room and errected a large blackboard on the wall behind the counter (ready for price lists or timetables to be written on during special events).
Well its 2005 now and we're back at Rushcliffe Halt. Its well into the closed season on the GCR(N) and even the Santa Specials have finished. However work at the station is never finished and so we've decided to "spruce up" the portacabins in the station car park. A start was made on the toilet block end by filling all the holes in the walls, rubbing them and the ceiling down and slapping on a coat of white emulsion. Ronnie has also been busy before Xmas tidying some of the junk that had accumulated in the cabin over the years. Looks better already!
An update on progress as I've been most remiss in keeping this site up to date: Ronnie has been busily employed over the last few months with his petrol driven brush cutter and now has much of the Down side embankment cleared. This is a seemingly never ending job as the weeds and blackthorn bushes appear to pop up overnight. Andy Warren and Roger Bailey have also been attacking the moss and weeds on the Down platform surface - although this platform is currently only used for stabling wagons it does form part of the wheelchair route into the station and so we need to try to keep these problems at bay.
The embankment was also the scene of a car accident during the summer. Someone managed to avoid steering round the bend and took out some of our fencing before coming to rest in the ditch at the top of the embankment. Temporary repairs to the wooden fencing have been made.
During October the station was one location for the "Land of the Wizards" event, in which a large number of children ran around the station site looking for answers to clues they'd been given. This is likely to be run again next year and we've been asked to get our thinking caps on to make the station more in keeping with the theme (and do it for low cost - no building stone castles!). The main running season is now over, so the station is not likely to see many services until the next running season starts at Easter 2005. In the mean time the team have a number of jobs to keep themselves occupied including the laying of more paving slabs, more preparatory work on the Down platform for its fencing, errection of another running in board on the Down side, installation of some new steps down to the station's pway hut and (of course) yet more ground clearance and general tidying.
In the early morning today the Gregory Boulevard footbridge arrived on site at Ruddington. Some quickie digital snaps are online to show the unloading operation. The deck now sits on a rail bogie flat wagon outside the shed at Ruddington, whilst the four step sections and supports are over by the new platform area.
Just had confirmation that a pedestrian bridge will be arriving early on Sunday morning at Ruddington, bound eventually for Rushcliffe Halt! The bridge is a redundant 30 year old structure (but in a good state of repair) from Nottingham. It is being lifted out on Saturday/Sunday night and will be arriving at about 4am.
Paved the ramp from the pedestrian entrance to the tarmac path; more scrub clearance
Coaching stock in Rushcliffe Halt was attacked by vandals and has had to be removed
A work party was at the station doing some shrub clearance, edging the ramp down from the pedestrian entrance down to the tarmac path and staffing the station for the Easter weekend trains.
Hoorah! The path to the ex-pway hut that is used as the station office is now completed. No more tiptoeing through the mud on wet days.
A work party made a start on levelling out the base of a new path from the new pedestrian gate down to the existing tarmac path down the embankment.
Working party finished installing the gate at the top of the embankment. More drilling of post holes on the down platform was undertaken and some of the moss on the down platform was cleaned off. As can be seen from the photo, S&T have been busy and the signal post at the north end of the down platform now has a head on it!
First working day of the New Year saw a start being made on hanging the new pedestrian gate at the top of the Down side embankment.
Another preservation first: GWR steam loco Rood Ashton Hall hauled the first railtour off the national network and onto GCR(N) metals. It called at Rushcliffe Halt to get the staff for the run to Ruddington NTHC. Unusually for a railtour it was bang on time as well!
The last diesel running day of the year was turned into a diesel mini-gala. The timetable proved to be a bit optimistic again but there was a pretty intensive service with some loco swaps happening at Rushcliffe Halt.
On the 30th the station was open for a diesel running day, though one of the diesels was replaced by a GWR steam loco. A start was made on digging the foundations for a path from the old footbridge base to the station hut. The 31st was the GCR's 10th Anniversary gala and a GBRf Class 66 loco was named "Sir Sam Fay" in the platforms at Rushcliffe Halt. The entire station was packed!
A no-show for the Saturday diesel running due to a failed locos and a late start for the steam service on Sunday put a bit of a dampener on the weekend. Nevertheless some of the station staff were there and got the bay platform edge painted ready for stock to move into it for the forthcoming galas. We also spotted that the pointwork north of the platforms was clogged up with gypsum so spent some time clearing it out.
Diesel Gala weekend; two days of intensive diesel services that passed through Rushcliffe Halt on the journey between the Heritage Centre at Ruddington and the back of Brush in Loughborough. Some loco failures caused the timetable to be rewritten during the weekend but the weather was great and most folk seemed to be having a good time.
Working day at the station; we got the Down side embankments tidied and the Down platform fence post holes drilled out.
Gypsum Gala weekend - three well loaded trains leaving Rushcliffe Halt! Lots of work done on the station as well - new "To The Trains" signs errected along with timetable/notice boards, more brick clearance from the Down platform shelter and new handrail fittings mounted.
Sponsered walk between Rushcliffe Halt and Loughborough saw steam
hauled services running into Rushcliffe Halt today. Water was turned
back on to the cabins in the carpark and we now have toilets at the
station. A start was made on clearing the bricks in the Down platform waiting room area.
Barrow crossing at the north end of the station put back in by Pete Wilson and some of the nocturnal alternative p-way gang!
Timetabled services start. We had a segment on Central News on TV, local councillers turning up and Radio Nottingham prize winners on board. Signal post metalwork north of Down platform painted with Hammerite.
Some fence support stumps on the bay platform ground down. Last of the vegetation debris on the down platform cleared off and white edging line painted on it.
New running in board was errected and old station signs moved up to carpark entrance and fence outside. More hut door painting and a start made on cleaning up signal north of Down platform.
Yet more trees and scrub on the Down embankment had been cut down since the Rushcliffe Restoration Team had last been at the station, Top surface of the Up platform white edge has been repainted and the hut doors have been undercoated. Down platform cleared of most of its rubbish.
More clearance work on the Up embankment. Undercoat painting on the hut doors, which have been in primer all through the winter.