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With the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway being celebrated in 2025, an event rightly marking the dawn of the railway age which so transformed both Britain and the whole world, our modest contribution is to reissue this long out of print history of the North Eastern Railway written by one of the doyens of railway literature in the last century, Cecil J. Allen. The North Eastern Railway had one of the most fascinating and complex histories of all of the British railway companies. As evidence of this, at its formation in 1854, the NER absorbed no fewer than 53 public and 21 private companies. Its roots date back to the earliest days of the development of the wagonways, imperative to carry coals from the Durham and Northumberland mines to the sea. Huge personalities like George Stephenson, Edward and Joseph Pease and George Hudson are involved in its story as is the struggle to build the through trunk route linking the north and south which was to become the East Coast Main Line. Later, as the nineteenth century progressed, the NER's preoccupation was to protect its lucrative territories from the incursion of others, which it did with considerable success. Every aspect of the NER's history is considered in this concise but comprehensive volume from the engineering works required to carry its lines through the rugged terrain which it served, to the development of its locomotives and services and later its early efforts to electrify part of its network. This is an enthralling story, thoroughly researched and well written which will be appeal to all those interested in the history of Britain's railways.
With the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway being celebrated in 2025, an event rightly marking the dawn of the railway age which so transformed both Britain and the whole world, our modest contribution is to reissue this long out of print history of the North Eastern Railway written by one of the doyens of railway literature in the last century, Cecil J. Allen. The North Eastern Railway had one of the most fascinating and complex histories of all of the British railway companies. As evidence of this, at its formation in 1854, the NER absorbed no fewer than 53 public and 21 private companies. Its roots date back to the earliest days of the development of the wagonways, imperative to carry coals from the Durham and Northumberland mines to the sea. Huge personalities like George Stephenson, Edward and Joseph Pease and George Hudson are involved in its story as is the struggle to build the through trunk route linking the north and south which was to become the East Coast Main Line. Later, as the nineteenth century progressed, the NER's preoccupation was to protect its lucrative territories from the incursion of others, which it did with considerable success. Every aspect of the NER's history is considered in this concise but comprehensive volume from the engineering works required to carry its lines through the rugged terrain which it served, to the development of its locomotives and services and later its early efforts to electrify part of its network. This is an enthralling story, thoroughly researched and well written which will be appeal to all those interested in the history of Britain's railways.