Race To The North - Background

Background

The late nineteenth century was a boom time for the railways in Britain with many independent companies operating but with poor coordination between the companies' lines. Gradually merger and other formal agreements were made so that travel across the country became feasible. For the first time long-distance rail travel could be afforded by the general public. By the 1880s two consortia in particular provided services between London and Edinburgh using separate routes on the east and west coasts of Britain terminating in London at King's Cross and Euston stations, and in Edinburgh at Waverley and Princes Street stations. Great Northern Railway (GNR) and North Eastern Railway (NER) ran the East Coast service with London and North Western Railway (LNWR) and Caledonian Railway (CR) on the West Coast. The companies each had territories where they owned the track or had legally enforcible running rights on some other tracks. At the "borders" between these companies' territories – York and Carlisle – locomotives were always changed (and they were generally changed at intermediate points also) but passengers did not necessarily have to change carriage.

In 1888, driven by commercial rivalry, the East Coast and West Coast consortia started competing fiercely over the speed of their express services over these two routes.

By the 1890s an east coast route had been established further north through Scotland over the Forth and Tay bridges allowing the North British Railway (NBR} to provide a reasonably direct Edinburgh to Aberdeen service so as to extend the East Coast consortium's King's Cross to Scotland route. Although NBR owned the track from further south at Berwick-on-Tweed, NER had running rights to Edinburgh. Caledonian already had a route connecting Carlisle and Aberdeen via Stirling and Perth. In 1895 a second "race" broke out but this time with the added excitement of arriving at the same station in Aberdeen. Indeed, after some 500 miles from London, the two routes converged to being in sight of each other just before Kinnaber Junction from where there was a single track to Aberdeen.

In 1901 Midland Railway and North British Railway ran an accelerated London St Pancras to Edinburgh Waverley express. East Coast responded by speeding up and West Coast briefly joined in. Although the press hoped for a new "Race", nothing came of it.