Great Central Main Line

Common card · No. 387727

The Great Central Main Line (GCML), also known as the London Extension, is a former main line railway in the United Kingdom. The line was opened in 1899, built by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR), which had been renamed the Great Central Railway (GCR) in August 1897, prior to the line's opening. It ran from Sheffield in the North of England, southwards through Nottingham and Leicester to Marylebone in London. The GCML was the last main line railway to be built in Britain during the Victorian period. It was built by the railway entrepreneur Edward Watkin with the aim to run as a fast trunk route from the North and the East Midlands to London and the south of England. Initially not a financial success, it recovered under the leadership of Sam Fay. Although initially planned for long-distance passenger services, in practice the line's most important function became to carry goods traffic, notably coal. In the 1960s, British Railways chairman Richard Beeching considered...

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