| London and North Western Railway | |
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LNWR No. 1881, a Webb 0-8-0 four cylinder compound – frontispiece from The Railway Magazine June 1903 |
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| Dates of operation | 1846–1923 |
| Predecessor | Grand Junction Railway London and Birmingham Railway Manchester and Birmingham Railway |
| Successor | London, Midland and Scottish Railway |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge) |
The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three companies – the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway. In the late 19th century the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the world.
In 1923 it became a constituent of the London, Midland and Scottish (LMS) railway, and, in 1948, the London Midland Region of British Railways: the LNWR is effectively an ancestor of today's West Coast Main Line.
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The LNWR described itself as the Premier Line.[1]
As the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom,[1] it collected a greater revenue than any other company. It served most of Britain's largest cities: Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, and (through co-operation with the Caledonian Railway) Edinburgh and Glasgow. It also handled the Irish Mail for the Government between Euston and Holyhead.
The company was formed on 16 July 1846 by the amalgamation of the Grand Junction Railway, London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway. This move was prompted in part by the Great Western Railway's plans for a railway north from Oxford to Birmingham.[1] The company initially had a network of approximately 350 miles (560 km),[1] connecting London with Birmingham, Crewe, Chester, Liverpool and Manchester.
The LNWR became a constituent of the London, Midland and Scottish (LMS) railway when the railways of Great Britain were merged in the grouping of 1923. Ex-LNWR lines formed the core of the LMS's Western Division.
Nationalisation followed in 1948, with the English and Welsh lines of the LMS becoming the London Midland Region of British Railways. Some former LNWR routes were subsequently closed, notably the lines running East to West across the Midlands (e.g. Peterborough to Northampton and Cambridge to Oxford), but others were developed as part of the Inter City network, notably the main lines from London to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Carlisle, collectively known in the modern era as the West Coast Main Line. These were electrified in the 1960s and 1970s, and further upgraded in the 1990s and 2000s, with trains now running at up to 125 mph. Other LNWR lines survive as part of commuter networks around major cities such as Birmingham and Manchester.
The LNWR's main engineering works were at Crewe (locomotives), Wolverton (carriages) and Earlestown (wagons). Locomotives were usually painted green at first, but in 1873 black was adopted as the standard livery. This finish has been described as "blackberry black".
Major accidents on the LNWR include:-
From 1909–1922, the LNWR undertook a large-scale project to electrify the whole of its London inner-suburban network.
The LNWR operated a number of ships on Irish Sea crossings between Holyhead and Dublin, Howth or Kingstown. The LNWR also operated a joint service with the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway from Fleetwood to Belfast and Derry.
Southern Division:
North Eastern Division:
NE Division became part of N Division in 1857.
Northern Division:
Northern and Southern Divisions amalgamated from April 1862:
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