By Callum Wright
Organisers at a historical railway centre in Ruddington say the museum has been ‘put back on the map’ after trains returned to the tracks for the first time in five years.
The Nottingham Transport Heritage Centre is the base of Great Central Railway Nottingham, which helps to preserve the railway, trains and other modes of historical transport.
Opening in 1995 on a former Ministry of Defence site, the centre is located alongside the Ruddington Fields train station, which from 1998 connected onto the former Great Central Railway Line and ran trains up to the north of Loughborough and back.
Just before the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019 however, trains ceased operation on the line and the heritage centre were forced to create new plans to get guests through the gates.
Following numerous successful tests and a few initial trips in September, however, the trains have now resumed operation for the public, running to Rushcliffe Halt station as part of the ‘Jingle Bell Express’ Christmas event.
With the Christmas train already having had a successful maiden voyage the weekend prior, site manager Paul Chambers says those working there have done everything they can to keep the centre going.
“There was a few issues with the track, maintenance obviously throughout Covid got left to one side and things have changed within the industry so we had to get our compliances back up to speed,” he said.
“We made a conscious decision that while the trains weren’t running we would form an events committee and keep the place in people’s minds.
“We have run Santas through the past few years but on a smaller scale, also we’ve had events where classic cars turn up every month, started bus and lorry rallies, things through Easter, anything we can just to keep Ruddington, or the Nottingham Transport Heritage Centre, on the map.”
Great Central Railway Nottingham is a volunteer-run organisation, with volunteers ranging from those who have helped repair the track, managed the ticket office and entertained families during events.
Karl Gillott, one of the volunteers who helps out in the centre, says getting people to volunteer is crucial to keeping the site going.
He said: “It’s [the train reopening] magic, it’s what we’ve been working towards, even though I’ve not been physically involved in that part of it, I know that the fundraising we’ve been doing has helped towards that, and without the trains, this site would struggle.
“Especially with the Santa trains they [visitors] love it, we’ve had a lot of good praise.
“It’s vital we get extra volunteers, a lot of the roles we’re looking for are not really train related, like ticket scanning, taking payments etc, you don’t need to to know anything about trains to do all that.”
Lots of repairs of different types had to be done to restore the railway, which Signalling and Telecommunications manager David John Morris says took a lot of helping hands to get sorted.
“We’ve put points in, we’ve put crossing gates on, signals, ground frames etc, it’s quite a multitasking thing, we do suffer a lot from vandalism – graffiti, cables stolen, glass smashed – we constantly suffer from that sort of thing so we have a lot of work to replace a lot of that stuff,” he said.
“Because we’re a railway that basically runs on the outskirts of Nottingham it can be difficult to get across to the public that we exist, it’s just getting people to know that we here and once they know they’ll tell their friends.
“It’s [the Christmas trains] has gone very well, beyond our expectations, we’ve had a lot more people come than we thought we would have and they’ve thoroughly enjoyed it.”
The original Great Central Railway Main Line, which began closure between 1966-69, ran from Sheffield, through Nottingham and Leicester and down to Marylebone in London.
A second part of the line operates from Loughborough Central down to Leicester North train stations as another heritage railway, and an ambitious reunification project between the two sections of track has been under development since 2017 and is expected to be finished within the next four years.
Taking about the project and the Nottingham branch’s long-term future, Paul Chambers added: “The plan for the last 30 years has always been to join, so it should be no surprise to anybody that we’re heading towards that.
“Certainly the last two years a lot of dust has been blown off that idea and we’re more positive and got focus on joining up.”
The Jingle Bell express will run every weekend up until Monday December 23, with a one-off trip down the whole line towards the North of Loughborough on December 29.
Routine service on the trains is expected to resume in March 2025.
