The chord from the Midland main line leading up to the Great Central line under construction in November 1973.

Looking from Nottingham Road, the new chord is the more distant embankment on the left. Much of the material for it was obtained from the disused Great Central embankment off to the right, over the bridge over the Midland main line.

The Great Central bridge over the Midland main line had corrugated iron sheets attached to its sides to catch any material dropping from the lorries which transported the embankment fill from one side to the other during construction of the new chord. Here 1-Co-Co-1 “Peak” class, number 82, enters Loughborough Midland station under the bridge with an express from London.

The embankment for the chord was almost complete except for the conduit taking the Hermitage Brook. Looking south with the Great Central line on the right.

English Electric Co-Co number 6803 pulls a train of oil tanks northwards under the Great Central bridge at Loughborough. The corrugated iron sheeting to prevent material falling off the bridge can clearly be seen, January 1974.

Photograph of the new chord ready for the track to be laid, taken from a northbound train on the Midland main line in January 1974.

In May 1975, “Peak” 1-Co-Co-1 45003 heads south on the viaduct over the River Soar at Loughborough Meadows. The vans and old-style containers will have come from Ruddington Ordnance, Storage and Disposal Depot. The train will take the chord from the ex-GCR to the ex-Midland Railway at the new Loughborough Chord Junction.

In July 1975, Bo-Bos 25104 and 25037 trundle down the chord from the ex-GCR onto the ex-Midland Railway main line at Loughborough Chord Junction with a train. The redundant GCR bridge over the Midland main line can just be seen in the distance on the left.

In winter 1979/80, the GCR bridge over the ex-Midland Railway main line stands ready for final demolition, here looking north. Part of the bridge has already been demolished since there were originally spans over four openings and the span over the southernmost opening in the foreground, which apparently never had any tracks through it, has already been demolished. The brick pier immediately in front is a central support not an abutment and above it is the cut-off end of the decking. Beyond on the right the new embankment with the chord from the GCR to the Midland can be made out, passing over a large concrete culvert.

It was unusual for an embankment to be removed before a bridge, it was usually the other way round. But this was the situation at Railway Terrace, just south of the bridge over the Midland Main Line, in 1981, and allows examination of the construction of the bridge abutment.

Close up of the bridge abutment at Railway Terrace. The buttresses would have strengthened the abutment, supported it from any tendency to topple over, and would also have locked the abutment to the embankment.

Looking south from on top of the Railway Terrace bridge along the line of the removed embankment leading to the northern limit of the preserved Great Central Railway.