Great Eastern Railway

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The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London to Norwich and had various other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern Railway in 1923.

[edit] Overview

The GER was formed in 1862 as an amalgamation of the Eastern Counties Railway; and also with several other smaller railways: Norfolk Railway, the Eastern Union Railway, the Newmarket Railway, the Harwich Railway, the East Anglian Light Railway and the East Suffolk Railway; amongst others. In 1902 the Northern and Eastern Railway also joined the GER.

Among the principal towns served from its London terminus at London Liverpool Street by the GER were Southend-on-Sea, Chelmsford, Colchester, Ipswich, Lowestoft, Yarmouth, Norwich, Cambridge and King's Lynn, besides many of the East Anglian coast seaside resorts such as Hunstanton and Cromer. It also served a busy suburban traffic area, including the towns of Enfield, Chingford, Loughton and Ilford.

The majority of its locomotives were manufactured in Stratford works.

It was grouped with other railways to form the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) in 1923. The GER had owned over 1200 miles of line and had a near-monopoly over East Anglia services until the creation of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway in 1893.

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The "Big Four" pre-nationalisation British railway companies v • d • e
Great Western • London Midland & Scottish • London & North Eastern • Southern
GWR constituents: Great Western Railway • Cambrian Railways • Taff Vale Railway Barry Railway • Rhymney Railway • (full list) LNER constituents: Great Central • Great Eastern • Great Northern • Great North of Scotland Hull & Barnsley • North British • North Eastern • (Full list) LMS constituents: Caledonian • Furness • Lancashire & Yorkshire • Glasgow & South Western London and North Western • Midland • North Staffordshire • (Full list) SR constituents: London and South Western Railway • London, Brighton and South Coast Railway South Eastern Railway • London, Chatham and Dover Railway • (Full list)
See also: History of rail transport in Great Britain 1923 - 1947 • List of companies involved in the grouping