Northern and Eastern Railway

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The Northern & Eastern Railway (N&ER) operated one of the two main lines which eventually became the Great Eastern Railway: the other being the Eastern Counties Railway.

The N&ER was part of an 1836 scheme for a railway in Great Britain from Islington to York via Cambridge, Peterborough and Lincoln. An Act of 1839/40 abandoned the section north of Bishop's Stortford and introduced a deviation from Tottenham to Stratford. Service began on the 15 September 1840 between Stratford & Broxbourne. An extension to Bishops Stortford was opened on 16 May 1842 with a branch line to Hertford via Ware opening on 31 October 1843. The Railway was leased to the Eastern Counties Railway and that railway began operating services on 1 January 1844. The Eastern Counties railway was merged into the Great Eastern Railway (GER) on 1 July 1862 but the Northern & Eastern Railway survived as a private company until being merged into the GER in 1902.

Like its partner, the N&ER was originally built to five-foot gauge, which was converted to standard gauge in 1844.