The Great Northern Railway was one of 120 companies that ran trains in
Britain during the Victorian and Edwardian period. Formed in 1846, it
traded independently for seventy-six years until absorbed into the
London & North Eastern Railway on 1 January 1923. Operating a network of
nearly 700 route miles it ran trains between King's Cross, London and
York, into the Eastern Counties and the East Midlands, the West Riding
of Yorkshire, into Lancashire and even south of the Thames.
It developed distinctive characteristics, both in the way it managed its
affairs and in the appearance of its trains, stations, signals and
signalboxes. Numerous photographs were taken, particularly from the
1890s onwards, by dedicated amateurs attracted to the lineside by the
sight of speeding steam locomotives in apple green livery, hauling
polished teak carriages. Goods trains and the endless procession of coal
trains were not such popular photographic subjects, but by searching out
these and images of staff, stations and signalboxes, this book aims to
capture something of the spirit of a once-great organization in the
heyday of Britain's steam railways.