Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway
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The Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway (M&GN) was a joint railway owned by the Midland Railway (MR) and the Great Northern Railway (GNR) in eastern England.
The line ran from an end on junction with the Midland Railway at Saxby, near Bourne, Lincolnshire to Great Yarmouth. Branches ran from Sutton Bridge to Peterborough and from Melton Constable to Cromer and Norwich. There was also a short spur connecting South Lynn to King's Lynn and the docks.
The section of line between Cromer and Sheringham is still in use today, whilst the track beyond Sheringham is in use as a preserved railway - the North Norfolk Railway.
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[edit] History
The Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway was formed in 1893 by the amalgamation of many smaller local lines, rather than being conceived from the start as a single trunk route. However, it offered its two parents - the MR and the GNR - access to the ports of East Anglia, and also enabled them to develop what became a lucrative source of revenue from holiday traffic from the industrial Midlands to the east coast resorts. It was easily the longest joint railway system in the UK, exceeding 180 miles (295km).
Until the creation of the M&GN, the Great Eastern Railway (GER) held a near-monopoly on East Anglian traffic and had assumed that their comprehensive network meant there were no population centres left to connect. However, the M&GN threaded its way between the GER lines, and connected the major towns of Norfolk (Great Yarmouth, Norwich, King's Lynn) with many smaller centres and, ultimately, via the MR and GNR networks to the Midlands and the North. Much of the route was single-track, and the gradient profiles were steep - the M&GN was never able to compete with the GER by providing the shortest journey times on trunk routes (eg, London to Cromer). The single-tracking also made the seasonal peak loads difficult to handle - August Bank Holiday weekends were particularly difficult, with waves of special trains from and to the Midlands having to thread their way through the normal traffic of local trains and freights. Typical daily flows during the peak usually exceeded 100 trains.
As well as local traffic, the M&GN created a series of regular long-distance services, linking, eg, London King's Cross to Cromer, and with regular daily services from Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Leeds, Birmingham and Leicester to South Lynn, Cromer, Norwich and Great Yarmouth.
The M&GN's administrative headquarters was at Austin Street, King's Lynn. Its operations control centre was at South Lynn. The M&GN's engineering centre was in Melton Constable: before the railway arrived this village had a population of just over 100 people. Within a few years it had grown ten-fold, with almost all the new arrivals employed by the railway and living in company-built housing, and it acquired the nickname of "the Crewe of North Norfolk".
With Grouping in 1923, the M&GN became jointly owned by the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) and the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS).
The M&GN was formally operationally incorporated into the LNER in 1936, although it remained heavily dependent on the LMS to provide the bulk of its longer-distance traffic. Most of the Melton Constable engineering centre was closed at this time, as was the South Lynn operations control centre and the King's Lynn administrative headquarters. The system remained jointly owned by the LNER and LMS.
With the creation of the nationalised British Railways corporation in 1948, the M&GN looked vulnerable. It was one of the first major closures with the bulk of its routes shut in 1959; displaced traffic mostly transferring to the former GER routes. Throughout its years of operation under many different owners, and notwithstanding the high proportion of its route that was single-track, it was an extremely safe system - not a single passenger was killed on the M&GN.
[edit] Summary of legal ownership
Formerly the Eastern & Midlands Railway Company, which was incorporated by an Act of Parliament of 18 August 1882, and comprised the Lynn & Fakenham, Yarmouth & North Norfolk (Light), and Yarmouth Union undertakings - these were all dissolved on 31 December 1882. The company also controlled the Cromer Railway.
From 1 July 1893 the properties of the company were acquired by the Midland and Great Northern companies under the provisions of the Midland and Great Northern railway companies (Eastern and Midland Railway) Act 1893, managed by a Joint Committee of the two companies having equal rights.
From 1 January 1923 the Midland Railway became vested in the London Midland & Scottish Railway Company, and the Great Northern Railway in the London & North Eastern Railway Company.
The committee passed to the British Transport Commission (Railway Executive) under Schedule 3 of the Transport Act 1947, which was subsequently replaced by the British Railways Board.
[edit] Locomotives
Because of the relatively early closure date, most workings throughout the life of the M&GN were operated by steam power. A small number of diesel multiple unit services were run in the final years, alongside the very occasional incursions of early diesel locomotives.
The company mainly used designs from other companies, including in the earliest years Beyer-Peacock models. Because the track was never in the most robust condition, locomotives tended to be lighter - 0-6-0s and 4-4-0s provided much of the motive power on the line, alongside occasional 2-6-0s and 4-6-0s. Ex-GER "Claud Hamilton" 4-4-0s were regular performers, as were LNER B12s. Towards the later years, among other locomotives the line saw Ivatt 4MTs, Ivatt 2MTs and occasional Standard 4MT types.
[edit] Badge and livery
The M&GNJR's badge consists of images derived from the Coats of Arms of the four principal Cities/Towns it served, (clockwise from top left) Peterborough, Norwich, Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn.
For much of the company's life the locomotives were painted a distinctive ochre (a golden-brownish form of yellow), and the carriages were mainly of varnished teak. Under British Railways' control, carriages were often carmine and cream, then maroon.
