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The Loughborough Gap is a missing section of the Great Central Railway to the north-eastern of Loughborough, England. The gap was created by the removal of embankments and bridges during the 1980s and the restoration project has been branded Bridge to the Future and Bridging the Gap. From south-to-north the route crosses the Grand Union Canal, Railway Terrace road, four-track Midland Main Line at Loughborough railway station and the A60 road. The Hermitage Brook watercourse runs parallel. During the 2010s work began to restore the link in order to join the northern and southern sections of heritages railway back together giving a total Great Central Railway (heritage railway) line length of . , planning permission was granted to the first major component: a replacement 30-metre single-span bridge over the Midland Main Line. An additional station called Loughborough High Level will be built to connect with Loughborough (Midland) station on the Midland Main Line. The restoration will reconnect the preserved line southwards via Loughborough Central railway station to the national railway network, using an existing freight chord which connects the northern part with the Midland Main Line. ==History== As a relatively late-developed railway in the United Kingdom, the GCR was resultantly forced to take some expensive civil engineering choices to complete their route. Just north of , the railway had to cross the existing Leicester section of the Grand Union Canal, before then crossing the existing Midland Main Line formation as well as avoiding the Hermitage Brook, before moving northwards to Nottingham.〔 Choosing to approach the location on a raised embankment, the railway engineers used a steel-decked span bridge to cross the canal, before using a double-deck, double-width steel-decked span bridge to cross the Midland Railway.〔 After the decision was made to shut the GCR as part of the Beeching Axe, in the late 1960s contractors were appointed to remove the railway tracks and major parts of the civil engineering infrastructure. This included the section north of to north of the Midland Main Line. Contractors initially removed the railway tracks, before also removing the bridges and supporting buttresses over the Midland Main Line, and then the embankment to its south. Unfortunately, the following year the Hermitage Brook flooded, resulting in additional contractors being engaged to reimplement part of the railways former embankment.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Loughborough 'Gap' )〕 After the formation of the Great Central as a heritage railway, bridging the resultant "gap" always became a significant challenge to realise the full operational vision. In the mean time, Morley Street industrial estate had been developed on part of the embankments former formation, whilst Loughborough Borough Council had developed, filled with household waste and then covered a landfill to the south. The GCR itself, having started it re-implementation of the GCR line from to the south, had developed its main locomotive shed on the old alignment to the north of the station.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Loughborough Gap」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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