North Eastern Railway (United Kingdom)

For the successor railway, see London and North Eastern Railway. For the early railway between London and Cambridge, see Northern and Eastern Railway.
Not to be confused with London North Eastern Railway (LNER), the current railway operator.

North Eastern Railway
1920 map of the railway
Overview
HeadquartersYork
Reporting markNE
LocaleNorth East, Yorkshire
Dates of operation1854–31 December 1922
PredecessorYork, Newcastle and Berwick Railway
York and North Midland Railway
Leeds Northern Railway
Malton and Driffield Railway
SuccessorLondon and North Eastern Railway
Technical
Track gauge4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Length1,754 miles 73 chains (2,824.3 km) (1919)[1]
Track length4,990 miles 44 chains (8,031.5 km) (1919)[1]

The North Eastern Railway (NER) was an English railway company. It was incorporated in 1854 by the combination of several existing railway companies. Later, it was amalgamated with other railways to form the London and North Eastern Railway at the Grouping in 1923. Its main line survives to the present day as part of the East Coast Main Line between London and Edinburgh.

Unlike many other pre-Grouping companies the NER had a relatively compact territory, in which it had a near monopoly. That district extended through Yorkshire, County Durham and Northumberland, with outposts in Westmorland and Cumberland. The only company penetrating its territory was the Hull & Barnsley, which it absorbed shortly before the main grouping. The NER's main line formed the middle link on the Anglo-Scottish "East Coast Main Line" between London and Edinburgh, joining the Great Northern Railway near Doncaster and the North British Railway at Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Although primarily a Northern English railway, the NER had a short length of line in Scotland, in Roxburghshire, with stations at Carham and Sprouston on the Tweedmouth-Kelso route (making it the only English railway with sole ownership of any line in Scotland), and was a joint owner of the Forth railway bridge and its approach lines. The NER was the only English railway to run trains regularly into Scotland, over the Berwick-Edinburgh main line as well as on the Tweedmouth-Kelso branch.[citation needed]

The North Eastern Railway headquarters in York designed by Horace Field and completed in 1906. Now The Grand hotel

The total length of line owned was 4,990 miles (8,030 km) and the company's share capital was £82 million. The headquarters were at York and the works at Darlington, Gateshead, York and elsewhere.[2]

Befitting the successor to the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the NER had a reputation for innovation. It was a pioneer in architectural and design matters and in electrification. By 1906 the NER was further ahead than any other British railway in having a set of rules agreed with the trades unions, including arbitration, for resolving disputes.[3] In its final days it also began the collection that became the Railway Museum at York, now the National Railway Museum.

In 1913, the company achieved a total revenue of £11,315,130 (equivalent to £1,406,360,000 in 2023)[4] with working expenses of £7,220,784[5] (equivalent to £897,470,000 in 2023).[4]

During the First World War, the NER lost a total of 2,236 men who are commemorated on the North Eastern Railway War Memorial in York. An earlier printed Roll of Honour lists 1,908 men.[6] They also raised two 'Pals Battalions', the 17th (N.E.R. Pioneer) Battalion and 32nd (N.E.R. Reserve) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. This was the first time that a battalion had been raised from one Company.[7] The company also sent two tug boats, NER No.3.[8] and Stranton[9] The latter became HM Tug Char and was lost at sea on 16 January 1915 with the loss of all hands.[10]

The NER Heraldic Device (seen above the tile map photo) was a combination of the devices of its three major constituents at formation in 1854: the York and North Midland Railway (top; arms of the City of York); the Leeds Northern Railway (lower left; arms of the City of Leeds along with representations of the expected traffic, wool and corn, and connection to the sea via the West Hartlepool Harbour and Railway); and the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway (lower right; parts of the arms of the three places in its title)[11]

  1. ^ a b The Railway Year Book for 1920. London: The Railway Publishing Company Limited. 1920. pp. 227–228.
  2. ^ Harmsworth (1921)
  3. ^ Addyman, JF, ed. (2020). North Eastern Railway Engine Sheds. North Eastern Railway Association. p. 24. ISBN 9781911360261.
  4. ^ a b UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
  5. ^ "North-Eastern Railway". Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. British Newspaper Archive. 21 February 1914. Retrieved 1 August 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  6. ^ "North Eastern Railway Roll of Honour - War Memorials Online". www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
  7. ^ Shakespear, Lt. Col. (July 2003). A Record of the 17th and 32nd Battalions Northumberland Fusiliers 1914-1919 (N.E.R.) Pioneers. Unit 10, Ridgewood Industrial Park, Uckfield, East Sussex, TN22 5QE, England: The Naval & Military Press Ltd. pp. 1–14. ISBN 9781843426875.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  8. ^ "Tyne tug NER No 3 1915". www.tynetugs.co.uk. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
  9. ^ "Tyne tug Stranton Char screw tug 1899". www.tynetugs.co.uk. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
  10. ^ "Hartlepool History Then & Now". www.hhtandn.org. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
  11. ^ Dow, George (1973). Railway Heraldry. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. pp. 81–83. ISBN 0715371304.