British Railways Board
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The British Railways Board (BRB) was the governing body of British Railways (later British Rail) from 1962 until privatisation in 1997.
The BRB was created under the Transport Act 1962 by Harold Macmillan's Conservative government to inherit the railway responsibilities of the British Transport Commission, which was dissolved at the same time. It had overall control of British Railways/British Rail from 1 January 1963 until the privatisation introduced by John Major's Conservative government under the Railways Act 1993. It has survived as a residuary body, BRB (Residuary) Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA). Through its subsidiary, Rail Property Ltd, it retains responsibility for "non-operational railway land" (for example, railway lines closed in the Beeching Axe which have never been built on).
The British Railways Board also owned a large amount of railway archive material, including papers, maps, films and photographs, dating back before nationalisation. At privatisation in 1997 these were distributed to various other bodies: the films went to the British Film Institute in London, the photographs went to the National Railway Museum (NRM) in York, and most of the papers went to the Public Record Office.
