The North Eastern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948, whose operating area could be identified by the orange signs and colour schemes that adorned its stations and other railway buildings. It was merged with the Eastern Region in 1967. It was the near direct post-nationalisation descendant of the North Eastern Railway, that had merged with some other companies to form the LNER in 1923.
In 1958 in a major re-drawing of the region boundaries it gained those former LMS lines that lay in the present-day West and North Yorkshire. In 1967 it was disbanded and merged with the Eastern Region.
The conurbations of Tyneside, Wearside and Teesside contained a high density of lines carrying not only suburban passenger traffic but also large volumes of freight generated by the coal, steel and chemical industries of the area. There were also branch lines of rural character, particularly in the remoter parts of Northumberland and Durham and the Yorkshire Dales and Moors: these rural lines would bear the brunt of closures during the Beeching period and after.
Locomotives and Rolling Stock
From Nationalisation the locomotives working in the region remained mainly those of the former North Eastern Railway and LNER. Between 1949 and 1951, 28 locos built to what was essentially the 1898 design of the old NER E1 now known by its LNER designation J72 were constructed in the region at Darlington Works. This was a rare, possibly unique, example of a locomotive class which was built, substantially unchanged, under pre-grouping, post-grouping and British Railways administration.
A British Rail Class ES1/NER No.1 electric locomotive
As the BR Standard steam locomotives became available they began to appear but with some notable exceptions: for example none of standard pacifics ever found a home in the region. Former LMS locomotive types also began to work in the region from the late 1950s onwards and became a familiar sight on the Stainmore line and on the coastal passenger routes in Yorkshire. The former North Eastern Railway freight types proved especially long-lived and many lasted until the end of steam in the region (by then part of the Eastern) in 1967.
The region worked closely with its neighbours to modernise services on the major trunk routes. From 1961 it received six of the 22 production Deltic diesel-electric locomotives which enabled the acceleration of many of the East Coast Main Line passenger services between King's Cross and Scotland.
Most lines had steam traction until dieselisation became widespread. A notable exception was in the Newcastle area where some suburban lines were electrified using 3rd rail at 630V DC. In the same area access to the Newcastle Quayside branch was by dual 3rd-rail and overhead electric traction. NER No.1, an electric shunting locomotive, once used on the Quayside Branch in Newcastle upon Tyne, is now at the Locomotion museum in Shildon, County Durham. It is one of a class of two locomotives built specifically for the branch using American designs and powerplants, which served from 1903 until 1964.
The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest of the "Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At that time, it was divided into the new British Railways' Eastern Region, North Eastern Region, and partially the Scottish Region.
The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a 393-mile long (632 km) electrified railway between London and Edinburgh via Peterborough, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Great Britain running broadly parallel to the A1 road.
The steam locomotives of British Railways were used by British Railways over the period 1948–1968. The vast majority of these were inherited from its four constituent companies, the "Big Four".
The London Midland Region (LMR) was one of the six regions created on the formation of the nationalised British Railways (BR), and initially consisted of ex-London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) lines in England and Wales. The region was managed first from buildings adjacent to Euston station, and later from Stanier House in Birmingham. It existed from the creation of BR in 1948, ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s, and was wound up at the end of 1992.
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.
Sir Vincent Litchfield Raven, KBE was an English railway engineer, and was chief mechanical engineer of the North Eastern Railway from 1910 to 1922.
The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) produced several classes of locomotive, mostly to the designs of Nigel Gresley, characterised by a three-cylinder layout with a parallel boiler and round-topped firebox. It produced the most iconic locomotive of its day, 4468 'Mallard', the holder of the world steam locomotive speed record. It also built the world-famous 4472 'Flying Scotsman'. However, its locomotive inheritance was much greater than just the 'A4 Class', it also produced highly successful mixed-traffic and freight designs.
The Scottish Region (ScR) was one of the six regions created on British Railways (BR) and consisted of ex-London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) and ex-London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) lines in Scotland. It existed from the creation of BR in 1948, and was renamed to ScotRail in the mid-1980s.
The Eastern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948, whose operating area could be identified from the dark blue signs and colour schemes that adorned its station and other railway buildings. Together with the North Eastern Region, it covered most lines of the former London and North Eastern Railway, except in Scotland. By 1988 the Eastern Region had been divided again into the Eastern Region and the new Anglia Region, with the boundary points being between Peterborough and Whittlesea, and between Royston and Meldreth. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s and was wound up at the end of 1992.
Class EE1 was an electric locomotive commissioned by the North Eastern Railway in 1922. Ownership passed to the London and North Eastern Railway in 1923 and to British Railways in 1948.
Class ES1 was a class of two electric locomotives commissioned by the North Eastern Railway in 1902. They were of steeplecab design.
The Tyneside Electrics were the suburban railways on Tyneside that the North Eastern Railway and the London and North Eastern Railway electrified using the third rail system. The North Tyneside loop was electrified from 1904 onwards and formed one of the earliest suburban electric networks; the South Tyneside line to South Shields via Pelaw was electrified in March 1938. British Railways converted these lines to diesel operation in the 1960s: the line to South Shields in January 1963 and the North Tyneside lines in June 1967 when the electrical supply infrastructure and the rolling stock had become life expired. In addition, the system was losing passengers and suffering from costly vandalism. Since the late 1970s, much of the system has been converted to form the Tyne and Wear Metro.
Gateshead TMD was a railway Traction Maintenance Depot situated in Gateshead, England. The depot code was 52A during the steam era and GD later on.
This article is part of a series on the History of rail transport in Great Britain
The history of rail transport in Great Britain 1948–1994 covers the period when the British railway system was nationalised under the name of British Rail, until its eventual privatisation in 1994.
"Big Four" was a name used to describe the four largest railway companies in the United Kingdom in the period 1923–1947. The name was coined by The Railway Magazine in its issue of February 1923: "The Big Four of the New Railway Era".
The North Sunderland Railway was a railway line in Northumberland, England. It was opened in 1898, and ran from Chathill to Seahouses, with an intermediate station at North Sunderland. Chathill was on the main line of the North Eastern Railway between Morpeth and Berwick. The branch was four miles in length and a single track with standard gauge track.
West Auckland railway station served the villages of St Helen Auckland and West Auckland in County Durham, England, between 1833 and 1962. It was on the railway line between Bishop Auckland and Barnard Castle. There was a locomotive depot, which was the only one to be both closed completely and later reopened by the London and North Eastern Railway.
Wellfield railway station was a railway station built by the North Eastern Railway (NER) on the route of the Hartlepool Dock & Railway (HD&R) to allow interchange between the existing line and their newly opened line from Stockton-on-Tees which had opened to passenger traffic just two years earlier. When first built, the station was located in a rural area, being located immediately to the north of the bridge carrying the Durham to Hartlepool road over the railway line. However the village of Wingate in County Durham, North East England gradually expanded northwards over the course of the station's life and as a result, the station became one of two to serve the village. It was also located only a relatively short distance from the Castle Eden Brewery and thus served the northern district of Castle Eden that surrounds it.
The NER Class V was a class of twenty steam locomotives of the 4-4-2 wheel arrangement. They were designed by Wilson Worsdell for the North Eastern Railway (NER) as express passenger locomotives.
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