FORMER GREAT CENTRAL RAILWAY ROUTE ( LEICESTER) June 2025

Описание: Please note that camera wobbles during certain parts of video See disclaimers at end of description

This summery June day, I finally gave into the temptation to visit a short but significant portion of the Great Central Railway slicing through the side of Leicester city centre and also now conjoined to a heritage railway at one end. The London connected arm of the then-MSLR  route connected not just the Midlands but also Sheffield and Manchester with the capital.... even if the 1954 electrification stayed to only between the two northern spots.


I begin the trip alongside the wonderful heritage railway station that stands on the site of one of the original suburban halts at Belgrave & Birstall, and make my way southward towards a city along a severely weed entrenched embankment before returning to the streets and the rather impressive variety of former bridge abutments that all once carried this important railway corridor across the East Midlands.
The obvious jewel in the crown is the former Central Station building on the western lip of the city centre which although having been hollowed out and now home to a bowling alley and dining facility still houses one original building up at platform level.
Past more loudly painted abutments and we cut back to the street and the gap left by a huge girder bridge that had sadly been removed from the landscape in recently years although it retain it's adjacent viaduct arches.
A trip through the park at line level again takes us across one of two lattice bridges and Upperton Rd to end at the impressively restored GCR wagon repair shop which though only housing a Starbucks, student apartment and a couple of other businesses stands alongside its pavement as a statue to Leicester's past railway importance.


DISCLAIMERS.

You will notice that the camera shakes continually at a couple of significant periods throughout the video - the parts exploring the former bridge remains between Blackbird Rd and Slater Street (11.03 - 15.00) and more specifically the segment of narration on Duns Lane approaching the bridge site at Western Boulevard. (21:26 - 22:00).
This is due to reasons beyond my control - the camera mounting connection became unstable and refused to tighten, along with walking with only one good foot at the time.
If this shake causes irritation or discomfort to you , please skip the aforementioned sections.

Secondly as you might notice my commentary ouput itself is audibly different due to the fact that I decided to experiment with a cordless mic at last.
Sadly it did not produce quite the results I hoped for with this only benefit being that I did not have to shout over the traffic

#greatcentralrailway
#leicester
#disusedrailway
#MSLR
#railwayhistory
#LeicesterNorth
#steamengine
#steamtrains
#LeicesterCentral
#Belgrave&Birstall
#WagonRepairShop
#Dave'sDeadLines