BW101

London and North Eastern Railway Company

Records of the London and North Eastern Railway Company: general legal and administrative records 1923-1966, Guide Bridge District Great Central Bridge Section 1792-1949.

1792-1966

BW101

These records are available immediately for research

The London and North Eastern Railway Company (LNER) came into being as a result of the North Eastern, Eastern and East Scottish Group Amalgamation Scheme of 1922. The London and North Eastern Railway Company incorporated the former Great Central, Great Eastern, Great Northern, Hull and Barnsley, North Eastern, North British and Great North of Scotland railway companies to become the second largest railway company in Great Britain. Covering 6590 miles in total, the system served the country between the Moray Firth and the Thames, with its main workshops in Doncaster. Sir Ralph Wedgwood was appointed Chief Officer of the London and North Eastern Railway Company and stayed for 16 years. The chief mechanical engineers, in chronological order, were Sir Nigel Gresley, Edward Thompson, and Arthur H Peppercorn. Various achievements of the London and North Eastern Railway Company included the running of the 'Flying Scotsman', which covered the 392¾ miles between King's Cross and Edinburgh during the summer months; a new dock opened at Grimsby; and the largest railway wagon in Great Britain with 56 wheels. The company served the brick yards at Fletton, near Peterborough; carried imported grain in bulk from the port of Hull; and ran special banana vans especially fitted with heating and ventilators to carry the imported fruit. Besides numerous railway vehicles, the London and North Eastern Railway Company also owned boats, docks and harbours in locations including the north east coast ports, some eastern Scottish ports, Harwich and London wharves, and piers and hotels. The London and North Eastern Railway Company became part of the nationalised British Railways in 1948.

It has not been possible to ascertain the complete original structure of record-keeping from the records held for this company. The fonds has been arranged into two series - one for general legal and administrative records, for which the original structure of record-keeping cannot be deduced, and the other is defined by how the records were originally kept. This second series is entitled 'Guide Bridge District Great Central Bridge Section'. It has been possible to detect some of the original structure of record-keeping from the documents, so the series has been further divided into five subseries - general byelaws and plans, Ashton Canal, Chesterfield Canal, Macclesfield Canal, Peak Forest Canal. The records within each series and subseries have generally been arranged chronologically while keeping records relating to each other together. This means that some records may fall slightly out of the chronological sequence.