The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the LNWR was the largest joint stock company in the world.[2][3][4][5]
Early 1900s map of the LNWR system and that of their Scottish partners, the Caledonian Railway (north of Carlisle) The thick black lines denote the lines of the two companiesLNWR's initials carved in Portland stone on one of Euston Station's entrance lodges
The company was formed on 16 July 1846 by the London and North Western Railway Act 1846 (9 & 10 Vict. c. cciv), which authorised 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.[6] The company initially had a network of approximately 350 miles (560 km),[6] connecting London with Birmingham, Crewe, Chester, Liverpool and Manchester.
The headquarters were at Euston railway station. As traffic increased, it was greatly expanded with the opening in 1849 of the Great Hall, designed by Philip Charles Hardwick in classical style. It was 126 ft (38 m) long, 61 ft (19 m) wide and 64 ft (20 m) high and cost £150,000[7] (equivalent to £19,650,000 in 2023).[8] The station stood on Drummond Street.[9] Further expansion resulted in two additional platforms in the 1870s with four more in the 1890s, bringing the total to 15.[10]
The LNWR described itself as the Premier Line. This was justified, as it included the pioneering Liverpool and Manchester Railway of 1830 and the original LNWR main line linking London, Birmingham and Lancashire had been the first big railway in Britain, opened throughout in 1838. As the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom, it collected a greater revenue than any other railway company of its era.[6]
On 1 February 1859, the company launched the limited mail service, which was only allowed to take three passenger coaches, one each for Glasgow, Edinburgh and Perth. The Postmaster General was always willing to allow a fourth coach, provided the increased weight did not cause time to be lost in running. The train was timed to leave Euston at 20.30 and operated until the institution of a dedicated post train, wholly of Post Office vehicles, in 1885.[14] On 1 October 1873 the first sleeping carriage ran between Euston and Glasgow, attached to the limited mail. It ran three nights a week in each direction. On 1 February 1874 a second carriage was provided and the service ran every night.[14]
In 1860, the company pioneered the use of the water trough designed by John Ramsbottom.[15][16] It was introduced on a section of level track at Mochdre, between Llandudno Junction and Colwyn Bay.[14]
The company inherited several manufacturing facilities from the companies with which it merged, but these were consolidated and in 1862, locomotive construction and maintenance was done at the Crewe Locomotive Works, carriage building was done at Wolverton and wagon building was concentrated at Earlestown.
At its peak just before World War I, it ran a route mileage of more than 1,500 miles (2,400 km), and employed 111,000 people. In 1913, the company achieved a total revenue of £17,219,060 (equivalent to £2,140,160,000 in 2023)[8] with working expenses of £11,322,164[19] (equivalent to £1,407,230,000 in 2023).[8]
The company built a war memorial in the form of an obelisk outside Euston station to commemorate the 3,719 of its employees who died in the First World War. After the Second World War, the names of the LMS's casualties were added to the LNWR's memorial.[22]
The LNWR were also involved in the mass manufacture of replacement legs in the mid 19th century and the early 20th century. This is due-to the routine demand for prostheses for disabled staff. Serious injuries that resulted in the loss of limbs were common at this time with over 4,963 casualties in the year of 1910 on the LNWR alone, and over 25,000 injuries across the whole industry, manufacturing prostheses resulted in self-sufficiency for the company.[23][24][25][26]
From 1909 to 1922, the LNWR undertook a large-scale project to electrify the whole of its London inner-suburban network.
The London and North Western Railway London inner-suburban network, encompassed the lines from London Broad Street to Richmond, London Euston to Watford, with branch lines such as Watford to Croxley Green. There were also links to the District Railway at Earl's Court and over the route to Richmond. With the Bakerloo Tube Line being extended over the Watford DC lines, the railway was electrified at 630 V DC fourth rail.[clarification needed] The electricity was generated at the LNWR's power station in Stonebridge Park and a depot built at Croxley Green.
Successors
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, including 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, such as 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. In 2017 it was announced that the new franchisee for the West Midlands and semi-fast West Coast services between London and North West England would utilise the brand London Northwestern Railway as an homage to the LNWR.
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".
On 30 April 1851 a train returning from Chester Races broke down in Sutton tunnel, and the following train ran into it. Six passengers were killed.[14]
On 6 September 1851 a train run for the Great Exhibition returning from Euston to Oxford derailed at Bicester and six passengers were killed.[14]
On 6 March 1853, the boiler of a locomotive exploded at Longsight, Lancashire. Six people were killed and the engine shed was severely damaged.[29]
On 27 August 1860 a passenger train collided with a goods train at Craven Arms and one passenger was killed.[14]
On 16 November 1860 the Irish night mail ran into a cattle train at Atherstone. The fireman of the mail train, and nine drovers in the cattle train were killed.[14]
On 2 September 1861 a ballast train came out of a siding onto the main line just past Kentish Town Junction without the signalman's permission, and an excursion train from Kew ran past the signals and collided with it, resulting in the deaths of fourteen passengers and two employees.[14]
On 29 June 1867, a passenger train ran into the rear of a coal train at Warrington, Cheshire due to a pointsman's error which was compounded by the lack of interlocking between points and signals. Eight people were killed and 33 were injured.
On 20 August 1868, a rake of wagons ran away from Llandulas, Denbighshire during shunting operations. The wagons subsequently collided with the Irish Mail at Abergele, Denbighshire. Kerosene being carried in the wagons set the wreck on fire. Thirty-three people were killed in what was then the deadliest rail accident to have occurred in the United Kingdom.
On 14 September 1870, a mail train was diverted into a siding at Tamworth station, Staffordshire due to a signalman's error. The train crashed through the buffers and ended up in the River Anker, killing three people.[30]
In 1870, a North Eastern Railway freight train overran signals and collided with a passenger train at St. Nicholas Crossing, Carlisle, Cumberland. Five people were killed. The driver of the freight train was intoxicated.[30]
On 26 November 1870, a mail train was in a rear-end collision with a freight train at Harrow, Middlesex. Eight people were killed.[30]
On 2 August 1873, a passenger train derailed at Wigan, Lancashire due to excessive speed. Thirteen people were killed and 30 were injured.
On 22 December 1894, a wagon was derailed fouling the main line at Chelford, Cheshire. It was run into by an express passenger train, which was derailed. Fourteen people were killed and 48 were injured.
On 15 August 1895, an express passenger train was derailed at Preston, Lancashire due to excessive speed on a curve. One person was killed.[31]
On 12 January 1899, An express freight train was derailed at Penmaenmawr, Caernarfonshire due to the trackbed being washed away by the sea during a storm. Both locomotive crew were killed.[32]
On 15 August 1903, two passenger trains collided at Preston, Lancashire due to faulty points.[33]
On 15 October 1907, a mail train was derailed at Shrewsbury, Shropshire due to excessive speed on a curve. Eighteen people were killed.[34]
On 19 August 1909, a passenger train was derailed at Friezland, West Yorkshire. Two people were killed.[35]
On 5 December 1910, a passenger train was in a rear-end collision at Willesden Junction, London. Three people were killed and more than 40 were injured.[36]
On 17 September 1912, the driver of an express train misread signals at Ditton Junction, Cheshire. The train was derailed when it ran over points at an excessive speed. Fifteen people were killed.
On 11 November 1921, the boiler of a locomotive exploded at Buxton, Derbyshire. Two people were killed.[37]
Minor incidents include:
In 1900, wagons of a permanent way train carrying sleepers were set on fire by the heat of the sun at Earlestown, Lancashire, destroying some of them.[34]
Ships
United Kingdom legislation
London and North Western Railway (Steam Vessels) Act 1898
A section of the former L&NWR line and station buildings are preserved at Quainton near Aylesbury. It is administered by the Buckinghamshire Railway preservation Society and houses some original L&NWR rolling stock in the former Oxford Rewley Road station. It regularly runs steam trains using various locomotives.
^Bradley, Simon (2016). The Railways: Nation, network & people (Paperback ed.). London: Profile Books. p. 426. ISBN9781846682131. "The LNWR was the largest joint-stock company of its time, with a capitalisation of over £29 million in 1851".
^Sheppard, Richard; Roberts, David. "Basil Oliver Moon BA". Magdalen College, Oxford. The Slow Dusk. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
^"One Hundred Years of British Railways. No. XI. Part II – The first half century. The London and North Western Railway". The Engineer: 288–290. 12 September 1924.
^"One Hundred Years of British Railways. No. XII. Part II – The first half century. The London and North Western Railway". The Engineer: 319–321. 19 September 1924.
^ abcdefgh"One Hundred Years of British Railways. No. XIII. Part II – The first half century. The London and North Western Railway". The Engineer: 354–356. 26 September 1924.
^Acworth, J. M. (1889). The Railways of England. London: John Murray.[page needed]
^Barrie, D. S. M. (1957). The Dundalk, Newry & Greenore Railway and the Holyhead – Greenore Steamship Service. Usk, UK: The Oakwood Press.
^"Map of LNWR". London and North Western Railway Society. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
^"London and North-Western Railway". Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. British Newspaper Archive. 21 February 1914. Retrieved 1 August 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^Reed, M. C. (1996). The London & North Western Railway. Penryn: Atlantic Transport Publishers. pp. 223–4. ISBN0-906899-66-4.
^Simpson, Bill (1989). The Aylesbury Railway: The First Branch Line, Cheddington-Aylesbury, Opened 1839. Oxford: Oxford Publishing Company. ISBN9780860934387.
^Earnshaw, Alan (1991). Trains in Trouble: Vol. 7. Penryn: Atlantic Books. p. 13. ISBN0-906899-50-8.
^Earnshaw, Alan (1993). Trains in Trouble: Vol. 8. Penryn: Atlantic Books. p. 11. ISBN0-906899-52-4.
^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvBradshaw's Railway Manual, Shareholders' Guide and Official Directory for 1905. London: Henry Blacklock & Co. Ltd. pp. 201–202.
^Railway Reminiscences by George P. Neele Late Superintendent of the Line of the London and North Western Railway, Morquorquodale & Co., London 1904, Chapter VII
