Great Central Railway (Nottingham)

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v t e Great Central Railway
Legend
Great Central Main Line A52 road Nottingham Express Transit Line 2 Ruddington Limit of operations Ruddington South Junction Ruddington Fields Gotham Sidings Gotham Branchline Rushcliffe Halt East Leake Barnstone Tunnel Barnstone Sidings Stanford Viaduct over River Soar Brush Traction Loughborough High-Level (proposed) Loughborough Midland Main Line Loughborough Gap Loughborough Top Shed (proposed) Grand Union Canal Loughborough Traction Maintenance Depot Loughborough Central Quorn & Woodhouse Swithland Viaduct over Swithland Reservoir Mountsorrel Railway Swithland Sidings Rothley Belgrave & Birstall Leicester North Leicester Central Great Central Main Line

The Great Central Railway (Nottingham) (formerly known as the Nottingham Heritage Railway) is a heritage railway located at the Nottingham Transport Heritage Centre (NTHC), on the south side of the village of Ruddington, in Nottinghamshire. The route consists of almost 10 miles (16 km)^[1] of the former Great Central Main Line from Loughborough South Junction (with the Midland Main Line) to Fifty Steps Bridge and the site of Ruddington's former GCR station, plus a branch line from Fifty Steps Bridge to Ruddington Fields station which is located on a former Ministry of Defence site next to Rushcliffe Country Park.

There are stations open to the public at Ruddington Fields (within the main centre site) and at Rushcliffe Halt. The GCR(N) aim to re-open the former station at East Leake in the longer term.^{[citation needed]}

The railway is currently not connected to Great Central Railway (at Loughborough Central in Leicestershire), although there are plans well underway and work has started to reunite the two preserved lines by bridging the Loughborough Gap. This is a major engineering project that is expected to be completed between 2024 and 2028. Some 5.5 miles (8.9 km) of the line was used by gypsum trains serving the British Gypsum works at East Leake until early 2020.