The six rival visions for Leicester's new £18 million Great Central Railway Museum have been unveiled.
 
The proposals, drawn up by heavyweights BDP, Carmody Groarke, Farrells, Grimshaw, Hawkins\Brown, and WilkinsonEyre all feature in a public exhibition launched today (5 Oct 2016).
 
Set to complete in 2021, the project will create a new landmark exhibition space and headquarters for the Great Central Railway (GCR), which operates steam trains between Loughborough and Leicester.
 
Supported by the National Railway Museum in York, the new 5,105 square metre facility will be constructed next to the heritage railway's existing Leicester North terminus.
 
Occupying a hilltop site overlooking the city centre, the museum is expected to increase visitor numbers at the Leicester North terminal from 124,000 to 230,000 a year.
 
It will feature a range of historic locomotives including a power car and trailer unit from the prototype Advanced Passenger Train, a forerunner to Inter-City trains.
 
New offices, cafe, retail facilities, and education spaces will also be required, plus potentially, a loop or turntable for repositioning trains.
 
Founded in 1969, GCR operates a 13.28 kilometre stretch of double track which was shut down following the Beeching review.
 
Andy Munro was recently appointed GCR chief executive after stepping down from his role as RIBA chief operating officer one year ago.
 
The public exhibition is being held inside the Platform Cafe at Greenacres next to the contest site today (5 Oct 2016) and a winning team will be announced tomorrow.
 
Merlin Fulcher.