The Great Central Main Line : Ruddington Station

The original Ruddington station was on the western side of the village and was of typical Great Central island platform style. The station had a goods yard, road over bridge and GC-style station buildings. It looked very similar to Quorn & Woodhouse with a similar road bridge type and goods yard size. In Great Central times seventeen trains in each direction per day served the station and the villages' 2,500 population.

An early picture of Ruddington station from about 1920

Another view of Ruddington showing the bridge and goods yard taken in 1963 
The buildings are now demolished and the edging stones to the platform are now gone. The whole area is very overgrown and is threatened with a housing development from Crest Homes. See the news page for a press release about these developments.

The same view of Ruddington as above only taken in 1989 shows an overgrown wasteland. The track visible in the foreground has since been recovered by us.

Looking north under the bridge at Ruddington station shows an overgrown (and cold!) line which comes to an end about 100 yards further on. This was used as a headshunt for trains going into the Ordnance depot (now the Heritage Centre) which had arrived from Loughborough.

Spinning 180 degrees round shows this view. To the left is the platform of Ruddington station, now minus edging stones, and looking more like a mound of weeds than a station. The scene now is even less recognisable- the track is gone, the area is even more overgrown and to the north the trackbed is impassible.

If the housing can be stopped then it is hoped to re-open Ruddington station with a proposed northern extension of the Great Central to meet the new Nottingham tram system coming south (possibly via the GCR trackbed as far as north Ruddington). An interchange station could then be constructed giving a rail link right from the heart of Nottingham.


A plan of the proposed northern extension to meet up with the tram from Nottingham

A little further south is 50 steps bridge. This is a steel foot bridge where the line from the Heritage Centre meets the main line. The track work in this area is almost complete except for the long term south chord.


A plan showing the 50 steps junction. This track work has already been completed with the exception of the south chord

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