Great Eastern Railway
The G. E. R. of Liverpool Street Railway Station.
The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London to Norwich and had various other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern Railway in 1923.
1863 The company was incorporated and owns 1,062 miles of line, besides 149.75 miles held jointly with others. [1]
The GER was formed in 1862 as an amalgamation of the Eastern Counties Railway with several other smaller railways:
- Norfolk Railway
- Eastern Union Railway
- Newmarket Railway
- Harwich Railway
- East Anglian Railway
- East Suffolk Railway
Robert Sinclair was consulting Engineer for the company until he resigned in 1866.
1863 'THE PROJECTED RAILWAYS THROUGH SHOREDITCH......The Great Eastern Extension. —The first which attracted our intention is the Great Eastern scheme for extension to the city. It is proposed to leave the present line by a branch near the Brick-lane station, cross Commercial-street about 150 yards from Shoreditch, and also Shoreditch between Commercial-street and Worship-street by bridges. The level of the rails over these streets is only 20ft and the under side of the bridge only 16ft. from the roadway. The inhabitants of the district will able to form some idea of the effect of such monstrous iron tank-looking bridges crossing the main streets at so low an elevation. The railway then passes between the North London Railway and the rear of the houses in Bishopsgate, taking nearly all the property, and on to Wormwood-street, where the main station is to be. The whole of this line is to be made means of a viaduct, by which the various streets are to be crossed.'[2]
1866 Edward Wilson became Consulting Engineer for the Great Eastern Railway in succession to Sinclair. Constructed Liverpool Street Railway Station[3] which opened in 1874
1868 1868 Engineer is H. W. Davis [4]
1875 The Bishopsgate terminus was closed when Liverpool Street station became fully operational.
1882 Opening of the Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway
By 1884 John Wilson was chief engineer.
1889 Engineer is John Wilson. Loco Supt is James Holden.[5]
1888 See Locomotive Stock June 1888
The GER had owned over 1200 miles of line and had a near-monopoly over East Anglia services until the creation of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway in 1893.
The majority of its locomotives were manufactured in Stratford Works, which was on the site of today's Stratford International station.
1895 Lord Claud Hamilton was the Chairman of the company. [6]. John Wilson was chief engineer.
1902 the Northern and Eastern Railway was acquired by the GER.
1923 The GER was grouped with other railways to form the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER).
Buses
1904-1905 GER built 12 double-deckers in Stratford, East London in their railway workshops. Each part produced was home-made but this substantial construction project did not ensure reliability.
Shipping
Also see Great Eastern Railway Society
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Stock Exchange Year Book 1908
- ↑ Shoreditch Observer, 5 December 1863
- ↑ The Engineer 1877/09/07 page 164.
- ↑ 1868 Bradshaw's Railway Manual
- ↑ 1889 Bradshaw's Railway Manual
- ↑ The Engineer 1896/02/07
- Ian Allan - British Buses Since 1900 - Aldridge and Morris