The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company was grouped into the London and North Eastern Railway.

History

New name

On assuming its new title, the Great Central Railway had a main line from Manchester London Road Station via Penistone, Sheffield Victoria, Brigg and Grimsby to Cleethorpes. A second line left the line at Penistone and served Barnsley, Doncaster and Scunthorpe, before rejoining the Grimsby line at Barnetby. Other lines linked Sheffield to Barnsley (via Chapeltown) and Doncaster (via Rotherham) and also Lincoln and Wrawby Junction. Branch lines in north Lincolnshire ran to Barton-upon-Humber and New Holland and served ironstone quarries in the Scunthorpe area. In the Manchester area, lines ran to Stalybridge and Glossop. In the 1890s, the MS&LR began constructing its Derbyshire lines, the first part of its push southwards. Leaving its east–west main line at Woodhouse Junction, some 5½ miles south-east of Sheffield, the line headed towards Nottingham, a golden opportunity to tap into colliery traffic in the north of the county before reaching the city. A loop line was built to serve its station in Chesterfield.

Coat of arms

The Great Central Railway was the first railway granted a coat of arms. It was granted on 25 February 1898 by the Garter, Clarenceux and Norroy Kings of Arms as: "Argent on a cross gules voided of the field between two wings in chief sable and as many daggers erect, in base of the second, in the fesse point a morion winged of the third, on a chief also of the second a pale of the first thereon eight arrows saltirewise banded also of the third, between on the dexter side three bendlets enhanced and on the sinister a fleur de lis or. And for the Crest on a Wreath of the Colours A representation of the front of a locomotive engine between two wings Or as the same are in the margin hereof more plainly depicted to be borne and used for ever hereafter by the said Corporation of the Great Central Railway Company on seals, shields, banners or otherwise according to the Laws of Arms." The design included elements representing Manchester (gules ... three bendlets enhanced ... or); Sheffield (eight arrows saltirewise banded); Lincoln (gules ... a fleur de lis or); Leicester (two wings); and London (Argent ... a cross gules ... daggers erect). Also represented was Mercury (a morion winged [sable]). It was used on locomotives and coaches. The London and North Eastern Railway and the British Transport Commission, successors of the GCR, were granted arms of their own incorporating the GCR motto Forward. The Great Central Railway (1976) Company Limited applied to the College of Arms as the successors to British Transport Commission (Loughborough to Birstall Light Railway) for permission to utilise the coat of arms of the GCR. A new design incorporating the same armorial components, updated in the modern style was proposed, but was rejected in favour of the original.

The "London extension"

The MS&LR obtained an act of Parliament, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Act 1893 (56 & 57 Vict. c. lxxix), giving approval for its extension to London. On**** 1 August**** 1897****,**** the railway's name**** was changed to**** Great Cen**tral**** Railway************** by the **** (60 & 61**** Vict****.**** c.**** liv). Building work started in 1895, and the new line, 92 miles (147 km) in length, opened for coal traffic on 25 July 1898, for passenger traffic on 15 March 1899, and for goods traffic on 11 April 1899. It was designed for high-speed running throughout. It is a commonly held myth that the nomenclature for the direction of travel on the new line was the opposite of standard UK railway practice, in that trains travelling to London were referred to as "down" trains, and those travelling away from the capital as "up" trains. It is supposed that it was a result of the GCR's headquarters at the time being in Manchester. The mileposts on the Great Central did start at zero at Manchester London Road and increase down the main line via Woodhead, Sheffield Victoria, Woodhouse, and then down the London Extension to Marylebone, 205 route miles from Manchester. However, official documents dated 21 July 1898, detailing the method of working of mineral trains on the London Extension (used to help consolidate the new earthworks before passenger traffic began in March 1899), clearly show that the direction of travel on the new line was conventional – up to London, down to Annesley. Furthermore, contemporary descriptions in newspapers of the trains running on the new line are explicit that up trains ran to London and down trains away from it. That made the Great Central unusual amongst British railways in that its down trains went towards its "milepost zero" and up trains went away from it, but the convention of up and down trains in relation to London was retained. The new line was built from Annesley in Nottinghamshire to join the Metropolitan Railway (MetR) extension to Quainton Road, where the line became joint MetR/GCR owned (after 1903), and returned to GCR tracks at Canfield Place, near Finchley Road, for the final section to Marylebone. In 1903, new rails were laid parallel to the Metropolitan Railway from Harrow to the junction north of Finchley Road, enabling more traffic to use Marylebone.

Later history

In 1902, the company introduced an express service from Bournemouth and Southampton to York and Newcastle upon Tyne. A year later, it began a through running express from Dover and Folkestone to Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Huddersfield, Halifax, Bradford and Manchester, avoiding London and opening up the South Coast to the Midlands and the North. The route from Banbury to Reading was over Great Western track and from there it traversed South Eastern Railway track via Aldershot and Guildford to Redhill and on to Folkestone and Dover. At the same time, the Great Central was gaining a reputation for fast services to and from London. In May 1903, the company promoted its services as Rapid Travel in Luxury, and Sheffield without a stop, adopted on 1 July 1903, became a trademark for the company, with 163.75 mi run in three hours, an average of nearly 55 mph. Slip coaches were provided for passengers for Leicester and Nottingham. On 2 April 1906, an "alternative main line" route from Grendon Underwood Junction near Aylesbury to Neasden in north-west London opened. The line was joint GCR/GWR between Ashendon Junction and Northolt Junction. It was built to increase traffic on the GCR by overcoming capacity constraints on the Metropolitan extension and as a result of disagreements between the MetR and GCR after the resignation of Sir Edward Watkin due to poor health. By the time the line was built, the companies had settled their differences. On 1 January 1923, under the terms of the Railways Act 1921, the GCR amalgamated with several other railways to create the London and North Eastern Railway. The GCR line was the last complete mainline railway to be built in Britain until section one of High Speed 1 opened in 2003 and was also one of the shortest-lived intercity railway lines. Yet in its early years, its steam-hauled Sheffield expresses were the fastest in the country.

Closure

The express services from London to destinations beyond Nottingham were withdrawn in 1960. The line was closed to passenger trains between Aylesbury and Rugby on 3 September 1966. A diesel multiple-unit service ran between Rugby Central and Nottingham Arkwright Street until withdrawal on 3 May 1969.

Line retention

Since 1996, Chiltern Railways has used the Great Central lines south of Aylesbury for local services into London, including the alternative route south of Haddenham and widened lines south of Neasden for its intercity main line from Birmingham to London. In 2008, in a scheme partly funded by the Department for Transport, about three miles of line north of Aylesbury as far as Aylesbury Vale Parkway was brought back into passenger use. None of these lines are currently electrified. Work started in 2019 on developing East West Rail, which will extend passenger services north of Aylesbury Vale Parkway through Quainton Road to meet a renewed Bicester Village to Bletchley section of the old 'Varsity Line' just beyond the site of the former Great Central station at Calvert. Services are expected to start in the mid-2020s.

Acquisitions

Joint working

Apart from the three branches in the Liverpool area, the GCR lines in the north of England were all east of Manchester but GCR trains could run from coast to coast by means of joint working with other railways. The largest of those utilized in this way were those under the Cheshire Lines Committee: the other participants were the Midland Railway and the Great Northern Railway, taking in both Liverpool and Southport. Other joint undertakings were (west to east): There were also joint lines in the south:

Key officers

For those in position before 1899, dates are as served for the MS&LR.

General Managers

Locomotive Engineer

Chief Mechanical Engineer

GCR locomotives

These could generally be divided into those intended for passenger work, especially those used on the London Extension and those for the heavy freight work.

Pollitt's locomotives

Taken over from the MS&LR, mainly of class F2, 2-4-2 tank locomotives, and also classes D5 and D6 4-4-0 locomotives.

Robinson locomotives

During Robinson's tenure, many of the larger express passenger engines came into being:

Preserved locomotives

Only two GCR locomotives are preserved: In 2019 there were plans to build a replica steam locomotive - a GCR Class 2 (known as the LNER D7 Class) Numbered 567 at Ruddington.

Rolling stock

Coaching stock

The following GCR coaches are preserved.

Goods wagons and freight stock

Cranes

Major stations

Wath marshalling yard

The marshalling yard at Wath-upon-Dearne opened in November 1907. It was designed to cope with coal trains, full and empty; it was worked with electro-pneumatic signalling.

Accidents and incidents

Docks

Grimsby docks

Grimsby, dubbed the "largest fishing port in the world" in the early 20th century, owed its prosperity to the ownership by the GCR and its forebear, the MS&LR. Coal and timber were among its biggest cargoes. The port had two main docks: the Alexandra Dock (named for Queen Alexandra) and the Royal Dock which was completed in 1852, linked by the Union Dock. The total area of docks was 104.25 acres (42 ha).

Immingham Dock

Completed in 1912, this dock covered 71 acre and was mainly concerned with the movement of coal. On 22 July 2012, the docks held an open day to celebrate 100 years of operation.

Ships

The Great Central Railway operated a number of ships.

Immingham museum

Immingham museum, which portrays the role of the Great Central Railway in the building of the docks and construction of the local rail network is home to the Great Central Railway Society archive. The museum is located in the Civic Centre, Pelham Road, Immingham and is open from 1pm to 4pm, Wednesday to Saturday from March through to November.