London and North Western Railway
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a railway company of the United Kingdom which existed between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three railway companies - the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway, and is effectively an ancestor of today's West Coast Main Line.
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[edit] Overview
The LNWR was known as the 'Premier Line'. Though disputed by many, it may be thought that it deserved this title because the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the first passenger railway in the world, was one of its ancestors through its merger with the Grand Junction Railway).
As the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom, it collected a greater revenue than any other company. It served some of Britain's largest cities: Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, and (through co-operation with the Caledonian Railway) Edinburgh and Glasgow. It also handled the Irish Mail for the Government between Euston and Holyhead.
The LNWR became a constituent of the London, Midland and Scottish (LMS) railway when the railways of Great Britain were merged in the grouping of 1923. Nationalisation followed. Some former LNWR routes were subsequently closed, notably the lines running East to West across the Midlands (eg Peterborough to Northampton, Cambridge to Oxford), but others were developed as part of the Inter City network, with the main lines from London to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Carlisle electrified in the 1960s and 1970s with trains now running up to 125 mph. Other lines survive as part of commuter networks around major cities such as Birmingham and Manchester.
The LNWR's main engineering works were at Crewe (locomotives) and Wolverton (carriages and wagons). The locomotive livery is described as 'blackberry black'.
[edit] Aquisitions
- Anglesey Central Railway, 1876
- Aylesbury Railway, 1846
- Central Wales Extension Railway, 1868
- Chester and Holyhead Railway, 1859
- Cockermouth and Workington Railway, 1866
- Cromford and High Peak Railway, 1887 (leased from 1862)
- Knighton Railway, 1868 (joint with GWR, leased from 1862)
- Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, 1921
- Lancaster and Carlisle Railway, 1879
- Merthyr, Tredegar and Abergavenny Railway, 1861
- Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway, (leased from 1866)
- Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway, 1868 (joint with GWR, leased from 1862)
- Shrewsbury and Welshpool Railway, (leased from 1864)
- South Staffordshire Railway, 1867
- St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway, 1864 (leased from 1860)
- Trent Valley Railway, 1847
- Whitehaven Cleator and Egremont Railway, 1877
- Whitehaven Junction Railway, 1866
[edit] Lines
- Canada Dock Branch from Edge Hill railway station on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway through the northern Liverpool to Canada Dock in 1866.
- Sections of the former L&NWR are preserved as the Nene Valley Railway and Northampton & Lamport Railway, the latter giving the name Premier Line to its quarterly journal.[1]
[edit] See also
- Locomotives of the London and North Western Railway
- Rail transport in Great Britain
- The Nicky Line
- Victoria Tunnel
- North London Railway
[edit] External links
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The "Big Four" pre-nationalisation British railway companies
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█ Great Western • █ London Midland & Scottish • █ London & North Eastern • █ Southern |
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GWR constituents: Great Western Railway • Cambrian Railways • Taff Vale Railway |
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See also: History of rail transport in Great Britain 1923 - 1947 • List of companies involved in the grouping |
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