Railways in Britain

Railways began in Britain, in the midst of the Industrial Revolution that had been in progress for the best part of a century. They had their origins in small setups at mines and other industrial sites, to easily move goods around, in the latter half of the 18th Century. They were usually horse-drawn but, after the invention of the steam engine, they were more increasingly powered by static engines using ropes or other devices to haul the waggons. Many of these took the form of inclines, where the engine hauled one or more waggons up the incline as others were lowered down the incline at the same time.

It wasn't until the early 19th Century that the idea of free-moving locomotives hauling waggons was exploited, and it was realised that this could be used as a means of moving people around from town to town in, relatively, more comfort than existing methods of transport. This began with the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825. This began as a commercial venture to move coal and other goods between the towns of Stockton and Darlington and the mouth of the River Tees, for export by sea. The Parliamentary Bill instituting the line, however, did not mention any specific use and it quickly became a method of transporting passengers as well as goods.

Over the next few years, the building of railways exploded in Britain, and many new lines were born that connected local towns around the country. In time, it was realised that these lines could be joined up to create a larger network covering longer distances. Many of the companies merged to become larger concerns and soon some very large companies emerged. By the early 20th Century, there were several dozen large companies and myriad smaller ones. It was decided that this was not efficient and the Grouping took place, i.e. the consolidation of all these companies into a Big Four - the Southern Railway (SR), the Great Western Railway (GWR), the London, Midland and Scottish railway (LMS) and the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). These companies were themselves nationalised into one state-owned concern in 1948, i.e. British Railways. The period known as Pre-Grouping, however, is usually used to describe the state of the companies as they were immediately prior to their incorporation into the Big Four, and it is customary to use "family trees" to show the history of incorporation of smaller companies into the larger ones. The Caledonian Railway was one of these larger companies.