Great Central Main Line

Great Central Main Line

Legend See Great Central Main Line (diagram) Manchester Piccadilly Ardwick Ashburys Gorton Fairfield Guide Bridge Newton for Hyde Godley Toll Bar Godley Hattersley Broadbottom Dinting Glossop Hadfield Crowden Woodhead Dunford Bridge Hazelhead Bridge Penistone Oxspring Thurgoland Wortley Stocksbridge Deepcar Oughty Bridge Wadsley Bridge Neepsend Bridgehouses Sheffield Victoria Midland Main Line Nunnery Jn. Woodburn Jn. Darnall Woodhouse Woodhouse Jn.: To Worksop Beighton Beighton level crossing Beighton Jn.: To Midland Main Line (Old Road) to Midland Main Line (Old Road) to Langwith Junction Killamarsh Central Renishaw Central Staveley Central Staveley Works Sheepbridge and Brimington Chesterfield Central Grassmoor Heath Pilsley Tibshelf Town Kirkby Bentinck To Worksop To Nottingham Midland Hollin Well and Annesley Annesley South Halt Hucknall Central Bulwell Hall Halt Bulwell Common New Basford Carrington Nottingham Victoria Arkwright Street Ruddington Ruddington North Jn. NTHC Rushcliffe Halt East Leake Loughborough North Jn. Loughborough Central Quorn and Woodhouse Rothley Belgrave and Birstall Leicester North Leicester Central Whetstone Ashby Magna Lutterworth Rugby Central Braunston and Willoughby Charwelton Woodford Halse GWR joint line to Banbury Culworth Helmdon Brackley Central Finmere Varsity Line (Freight) Calvert Grendon Underwood Jn. Quainton Road Waddesdon Manor Aylesbury Stoke Mandeville Wendover Great Missenden Amersham Chalfont & Latimer Chorleywood Rickmansworth Harrow-on-the-Hill Wembley Stadium (old) Neasden Jn. Marylebone Goods Terminal London Marylebone

The Great Central Main Line (GCML), also known as the London Extension of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway was a main railway line in England that linked Sheffield with Marylebone Station in London via Nottingham and Leicester. Opened in 1899, it was the last main line railway built in Britain until High Speed 1 opened in 2003. The construction of the line was a financial disaster for the MS&LR, shortly renamed as Great Central Railway which had previously been a moderately successful trans-pennine provincial railway. However the inspired leadership by the General Manager Sam Fay (later knighted for his role in the Railway Operating Division in World War I) succeeded in turning this disaster around.

Originally, the southern part of the route into London was over existing tracks mainly built by the Metropolitan Railway (MetR) and shared with that company. However, non-cooperation on the MetR's part caused the GCR to build the Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway joint line, which by-passed the greater part of the MetR's tracks, except for a shorter section on the approach to Marylebone. At the northern end, at Sheffield, it connected Woodhead Route which linked Manchester and other GCR lines in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Traffic on the London extension