page_title: Mountsorrel Railway
section_title: Restoration
hierarchical_section_title: Mountsorrel Railway / Restoration
caption_attribution_description: English: The new Mountsorrel Railway's first wagon project, numbered 654.
context_page_description: The Mountsorrel Railway was a network of industrial railway lines that served the granite quarries which dominate the Leicestershire village of Mountsorrel. After being closed in the 1950s, a section was reopened in 2015 as a heritage line run by Mountsorrel & Rothley Community Heritage Centre.
context_section_description: A local resident, Steve Cramp, had been researching the railway and, as well as writing a book about it, led the project to rebuild the part of the railway going from Swithland to Mountsorrel. Donations came in for the project, including from Lafarge. The project reinstated one-and-a-quarter miles of new track to a small halt station under Bond Lane bridge. This enables the villagers of Mountsorrel to catch a train for nearby Rothley and then onto the rest of the preserved network. The line climbs at a grade of 1-in-62, which is far steeper than the gradients on the Great Central Mainline, as they reached only 1-in-175.
  Despite numerous examples, none of the original Mountsorrel wagons had been preserved, so three wooden-bodied open wagons (two 5-plank bodies and one 3-plank) which closely resembled the old ones were selected to be returned to service in the official light grey livery of the old Mountsorrel Granite Company.
  Open days had been held on the trackbed since May 2009, involving ecology groups and track bed 'tours among' children and adults. When finished, the plan is to provide the Great Central Railway with a secondary attraction, recreating various scenes from the past, including a time when children would ride in the open wagons on Sundays and days out.
  By 2010, the group had completed ballast laying over the first mile from the junction with the GCR to Wood Lane. On 10 May 2010, the track work began with the placement of a right-handed point at Swithland Sidings, the first part of the new junction. In June, the group received a £5000 donation from the Great Central's support charity, bringing them closer to their goal to complete the track laying. 
  By May 2011, track had been laid over the first 300m of the branch line, which allowed the first trains to run on the railway since the track lifting trains in 1959. The group are currently in the process of fund raising for £16,000 to allow the next 450m of track to be laid.
  By the end of April 2012, phase 2 had been completed, with a further 250-300m laid and many hedgerows planted, and fund raising for phase three was well underway (£11,000 of £23,000 raised so far). This will allow laying of the next 500m of track and take the track to Wood Lane, on the outskirts of Mountsorrel.
  In early December 2012, track-laying passed through the bridge at Wood Lane. Materials had also been secured to reach the end of the line at Bond Lane. By this time, total project spend had been £90,000, with £9,500 still to be raised to complete the track to passenger-carrying standards.
caption: 1950-built wagon No. B477060, restored as 654 for the Mountsorrel Railway project
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