The following is a
list of constituents of British Railways. British Railways (BR) was formed by nationalisation on 1 January 1948 in accordance with the
Transport Act 1947Under the Transport Act 1947 the railways, long-distance road haulage and various other types of transport were acquired by the state and handed over to a British Transport Commission for operation...
. It had four major constituents, but there were a number of joint lines between these, and additionally some
light railwaysLight Railways is a magazine produced by the Light Railway Research Society of Australia . The subtitle is "Australia's Magazine of Industrial and Narrow Gauge Railways"....
were taken into the fold. Even then, some light railways were not nationalised.
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The following is a
list of constituents of British Railways. British Railways (BR) was formed by nationalisation on 1 January 1948 in accordance with the
Transport Act 1947Under the Transport Act 1947 the railways, long-distance road haulage and various other types of transport were acquired by the state and handed over to a British Transport Commission for operation...
. It had four major constituents, but there were a number of joint lines between these, and additionally some
light railwaysLight Railways is a magazine produced by the Light Railway Research Society of Australia . The subtitle is "Australia's Magazine of Industrial and Narrow Gauge Railways"....
were taken into the fold. Even then, some light railways were not nationalised.
Major constituents
The major constituents (the "
Big FourThe Big Four was a name used to describe the four largest railway companies in the United Kingdom in the period 1923-1947. The name was coined by the Railway Magazine in its issue of February 1923: "The Big Four of the New Railway Era".The Big Four were:...
") were:
- Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835, and ran its first trains three years later...
(GWR)
- London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS)
- London and North Eastern Railway
The London and North Eastern Railway was the second-largest of the "Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain...
(LNER)
- Southern Railway
The Southern Railway , was a British railway company established in the 1923 Grouping. It linked London with the Channel ports, South West England and Kent...
(SR)
Joint railways
Joint railways between the four major constituents (and others) were:
- Axholme Joint Railway Committee (1/2 LMS, 1/2 LNER)
- Cheshire Lines Committee
The Cheshire Lines Committee was the second largest joint railway in Great Britain, with 143 route miles. Despite its name, approximately 55% of its system was in Lancashire. In its publicity material it was often styled as the Cheshire Lines Railway...
(2/3 LNER, 1/3 LMS)
- Dumbarton and Balloch Joint Railway (1/2 LMS, 1/2 LNER)
- Dundee and Arbroath Joint Railway (1/2 LMS, 1/2 LNER)
- East London Railway Joint Committee (1/6 LNER, 1/2 SR, 1/3 London Transport)
- Forth Bridge Railway Company (2/3 LNER, 1/3 LMS)
- Grangemouth Branch Railway
- Great Central and Midland Joint Committee (1/2 LMS, 1/2 LNER)
- Great Central and North Staffordshire Joint Committee (1/2 LMS, 1/2 LNER)
- Great Central and North Western Railways Joint Committee (1/2 LMS, 1/2 LNER)
- Great Central, Hull and Barnsley and Midland Committee (2/3 LNER, 1/3 LMS)
- Great Northern and London and North Western Joint Committee (1/2 LMS, 1/2 LNER)
- Great Western and Great Central Railways Joint Committee
The Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway was a joint venture supported by the Great Western Railway and Great Central Railway and run by the Great Western and Great Central Joint Committee. The original arrangement was agreed between the two companies in September 1898...
(1/2 GWR, 1/2 LNER)
- Great Western and Great Central (Banbury Junction Railway) Joint Committee (1/2 GWR, 1/2 LNER)
- Halifax and Ovenden Joint Committee
- Halifax High Level Joint Committee
- London, Midland and Scottish and Great Western Railways Joint Committee (1/2 GWR, 1/2 LMS)
- Manchester, South Junction and Altrincham Railway Company (1/2 LMS, 1/2 LNER)
- Metropolitan and Great Central Joint Committee (1/2 LNER, 1/2 London Transport)
- Midland and North Eastern Railway Companies Committee (1/2 LMS, 1/2 LNER)
- Mid-Nottinghamshire Joint Railway Committee (1/2 LMS, 1/2 LNER)
- Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway
The Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway, was a joint railway owned by the Midland Railway and the Great Northern Railway in eastern England, affectionately known as the 'Muddle and Get Nowhere' to generations of passengers, enthusiasts, and other users.The main line ran from Peterborough to...
(1/2 LMS, 1/2 LNER)
- Norfolk and Suffolk Joint Railways Committee (1/2 LMS, 1/2 LNER)
- Oldham, Ashton-under-Lyne and Guide Bridge Junction Railway Company
- Otley and Ilkley Joint Line Committee (1/2 LMS, 1/2 LNER)
- Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway
The Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway – almost always referred to as "the S&D" – was an English railway line connecting Bath in north east Somerset and Bournemouth now in south east Dorset but then in Hampshire...
(1/2 SR, 1/2 LMS)
- South Yorkshire Joint Line Committee (1/2 LMS, 1/2 LNER)
- Watford Joint Railway Committee (1/2 LNER, 1/2 London Transport)
Minor railways and Light railways
- East Kent Light Railway
The East Kent Light Railway was part of the Colonel Stephens group of cheaply-built rural light railways in England. Holman Fred Stephens was engineer from its inception, subsequently becoming director and manager...
- Kent and East Sussex Railway
The Kent & East Sussex Railway refers to both an historical private railway company in Kent and Sussex in England, as well as a heritage railway currently running on part of the route of the historical company.-Historical Company:-Background:...
- Mersey Railway
The Mersey Railway connected Liverpool and Birkenhead, England, via the Mersey Railway Tunnel under the River Mersey. Opened in 1886, it was the second oldest urban underground railway network in the world. The railway contained the first tunnel built under the river. It was constructed by John...
- North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway
|}The North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway was a railway built to serve numerous ball clay pits that lay in the space between the London and South Western Railway's Torrington branch, an extension of the North Devon Railway group, and Halwill, an important rural junction on the North...
- Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Railway
|}The Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Light Railway was a railway running from Shrewsbury, England to Llanymynech, Wales. It opened in 1911, taking over most of the former Potteries, Shrewsbury & North Wales Railway from the Shropshire Railways Company, and was one of the Colonel Stephens Railways.It...
(1950)
Irish railways
Irish railways owned by the LMS (the
Northern Counties CommitteeThe Northern Counties Committee was a railway that served the north-east of Ireland. Originally constructed to the Irish standard gauge of 5 ft 3 in , a number of 3 ft 0 in narrow gauge lines were acquired later...
lines) were also acquired but were quickly sold on to the
Government of Northern IrelandA number of separate systems of government exist or have existed in Northern Ireland.* The Executive Committee * The Northern Ireland Executive...
.