The North Eastern Railway (NER) was an English railway company. It was incorporated by the combination of several existing railway companies by the (17 & 18 Vict. c. ccxi). 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.
The total length of line owned was and the company's share capital was £82 million. The headquarters were at York and the works at Darlington, Gateshead, York and elsewhere.Harmsworth (1921)
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. 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 () with working expenses of £7,220,784. ().
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. 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. The company also sent two tug boats, NER No.3. and Stranton. The latter became HM Tug Char and was lost at sea on 16 January 1915 with the loss of all hands.
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).
Constituent parts of the NER
The information for this section is largely drawn from Appendix E (pp 778–779) in Tomlinson.
Railway companies
1854
by the North-eastern Railway Company's Act 1854 (17 & 18 Vict. c. ccxi): York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway was York and Newcastle Railway (1846–1847) and Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway (1842–1846) by the Durham Junction Railway Act 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. xxvii): Durham Junction Railway by the Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. xcii): Brandling Junction Railway by the Durham and Sunderland Railway and Wearmouth Dock Purchases Act 1846 (9 & 10 Vict. c. ccxxxv): Durham and Sunderland Railway by the Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway Act 1846 (9 & 10 Vict. c. cccxxx): Pontop and South Shields Railway by the Stanhope and Tyne Railroad Company (Dissolution) Act 1842 (5 & 6 Vict. c. xxvii): Stanhope and Tyne Railway by the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railways Act 1847 (10 & 11 Vict. c. cxxxiii) Newcastle and Berwick Railway by the Newcastle and Berwick Railway Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. clxiii) Newcastle and North Shields Railway by the Great North of England Railway Company's Purchase Amendment Act 1850 (13 & 14 Vict. c. liii) Great North of England Railway York and North Midland Railway by the Leeds and Selby Railway Act 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. xxi) Leeds and Selby Railway (1844) by the Whitby and Pickering Railway Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. lvii) Whitby and Pickering Railway by the York and North Midland (East and West Yorkshire Railway Amalgamation) Act 1852 (15 & 16 Vict. c. lvii) East and West Yorkshire Junction Railway Leeds Northern Railway was Leeds and Thirsk Railway (1845–1849) Malton and Driffield Junction Railway
1857 by the North-eastern Railway Company's (Lanchester Valley Branch) Act 1857 (20 & 21 Vict. c. xlvi): Dearness Valley Railway by the North-eastern Railway Company's (Hartlepool Dock and Railway Amalgamation) Act 1857 (20 & 21 Vict. c. xxxiii): Hartlepool Dock and Railway
1859
by the (22 & 23 Vict. c. xci): North Yorkshire and Cleveland Railway Bedale and Leyburn Railway
1862 by the North-eastern Railway Company's (Hull and Holderness Amalgamation) Act 1862 (25 & 26 Vict. c. cxx) Hull and Holderness Railway by the North-eastern and Carlisle Railways Amalgamation Act 1862 (25 & 26 Vict. c. cxlv) Newcastle and Carlisle Railway Blaydon, Gateshead and Hebburn Railway (1839)
1863 by the North-eastern and Stockton and Darlington Railways Amalgamation Act 1863 (26 & 27 Vict. c. cxxii): Stockton and Darlington Railway by the Stockton and Darlington Railway Amalgamation Act 1858 (21 & 22 Vict. c. cxvi): Darlington and Barnard Castle Railway (1858) Middlesbrough and Guisborough Railway (1858) Middlesbrough and Redcar Railway (1858) Wear Valley Railway (1858) by the Wear Valley Railway Act 1847 (10 & 11 Vict. c. ccxcii): Bishop Auckland and Weardale Railway (1847) by the Stockton and Darlington Railway (Amalgamation) Act 1862 (25 & 26 Vict. c. cvi): Eden Valley Railway (1862) Frosterly and Stanhope Railway (1862) South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway (1862)
1865
by the (28 & 29 Vict. c. ccclxviii): Cleveland Railway West Hartlepool Harbour and Railway by the West Hartlepool Harbour and Railway Act 1852 (15 & 16 Vict. c. cxlii): Clarence Railway (1853) Stockton and Hartlepool Railway (1853)
1866 by the North-eastern, Hull, and Hornsea Railway Amalgamation Act 1866 (29 & 30 Vict. c. clxxxvii): Hull and Hornsea Railway
1870 by the North-eastern Railway Company's (Leyburn and Hawes Branch, &c.) Act 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. cv): West Durham Railway
1872 Hull and Selby Railway
1874 by the North-eastern Railway (Blyth and Tyne Transfer) Act 1874 (37 & 38 Vict. c. cxcii): Blyth and Tyne Railway
1876
by the (39 & 40 Vict. c. cii): Hexham and Allendale Railway Leeds, Castleford and Pontefract Junction Railway
1882
by the (45 & 46 Vict. c. l): Tees Valley Railway
1883
by the (46 & 47 Vict. c. lxiii):
Scotswood, Newburn and Wylam Railway
1889
by the (52 & 53 Vict. c. lx): Whitby, Redcar and Middlesbrough Union Railway
1894
by the (57 & 58 Vict. c. cliii):
1898 by the North Eastern Railway Act 1898 (61 & 62 Vict. c. cxcvii): Scarborough and Whitby Railway
1900
by the (63 & 64 Vict. c. clxii): Cawood, Wistow and Selby Light Railway Londonderry (Seaham to Sunderland) Railway Merrybent and Darlington Railway
1914
by the (4 & 5 Geo. 5. c. xcv): Scarborough, Bridlington and West Riding Junction Railway
1922 Hull and Barnsley Railway
Dock companies
1853 by the (28 & 29 Vict. c. ccclxviii): West Hartlepool Harbour and Railway by the West Hartlepool Harbour and Railway Act 1852 (15 & 16 Vict. c. cxlii): Hartlepool West Harbour and Dock
1857 by the North-eastern Railway Company's (Hartlepool Dock and Railway Amalgamation) Act 1857 (20 & 21 Vict. c. xxxiii): Hartlepool Dock and Railway
1893 by the North Eastern Railway (Hull Docks) Act 1893 (56 & 57 Vict. c. cxcviii): Hull Dock Company
Principal stations
Having inherited the country's first great barrel-vault-roofed station, Newcastle Central, from its constituent, the York Newcastle & Berwick railway, over the next half century the NER built a grander set of principal station buildings than any other British railway company, with examples at Alnwick, Tynemouth, Gateshead East, Sunderland, Stockton, Middlesbrough, Darlington Bank Top, York and Hull Paragon. The rebuilding and enlargement of the last-named created the last of the type in the country.
The four largest stations, at Newcastle, Darlington, York and Hull, survive in transport use, as does Tynemouth. Alnwick is still extant as a second-hand book warehouse, having lost its transport use in 1991. The others were demolished during the state-owned-railway era of the 1950s and 60s, two of them, Sunderland and Middlesbrough, following bomb damage during the Second World War.
York station (York) was the hub of the system and the location of the headquarters of the line. The basis for the present station was opened on 25 June 1877. From June 1909 to May 1951, when it was replaced by an electric system, the 295-lever locomotive yard signal cabin contained the largest mechanical lever frame in Britain. Newcastle station (Newcastle), opened on 29 August 1850, became the largest on the NER. Leeds New Station (later Leeds City, now Leeds) was a joint undertaking with the London and North Western Railway. It opened in 1869.
Architects The NER was the first railway company in the world to appoint a full-time salaried architect to work with its chief engineer in constructing railway facilities. Some of the men appointed were based in, or active in, Darlington.
George Townsend Andrews was the first architect associated with the North Eastern Railway. He designed the first permanent station at York, along with others on the NER route. He also designed the Assembly Rooms in York. Thomas Prosser held the position from 1854 to 1874. He worked in Newcastle. Benjamin Burleigh, served for two years, dying in office. William Peachey, was based in Darlington, and served for two years. Peachey had been architect to the Stockton and Darlington Railway, and when this merged into the NER in 1863, he was made Darlington section architect. Most of his work was to extend and improve railway buildings. Elsewhere he built the Zetland Hotel at Saltburn (1861–63), and the Royal Station Hotel at York (1877–82). He also practised privately, designing a few nonconformist chapels, including Grange Road Baptist Chapel in Darlington, 1870–1.
William Bell worked for the NER for 50 years; he was chief architect for 37 years, between 1877 and 1914. His major contributions were as NER architect. Bank Top (1884–87) is one of the best examples of his station designs, for which he developed a standard system of roof building. He added various elements to the North Road Engineering works between 1884 and 1910. He also designed the offices of the Mechanical Engineer's Department in Brinkburn Road in 1912, showing that he could adapt his style to the new influences of the Queen Anne revival. Horace Field, with William Bell, designed the Headquarters Offices in York completed in 1906, now The Grand Hotel and Spa. Field also designed the company's London office at 4 Cowley Street, Westminster, completed the same year as the York offices, which was later used by the Liberal Democratic Party as its headquarters and is now a private house.