London, Midland and Scottish Railway

Overview The Railways Act 1921 created four large railway companies which were in effect geographical monopolies, albeit with competition at their boundaries, and with some lines either reaching into competitor territory, or being jointly operated. The LMS operated services in and around London, the Midlands, the North West of England, Mid/North Wales and Scotland. The company also operated a separate network of lines in Northern Ireland. The principal routes were the West Coast Main Line and the Midland Main Line, which had been the main routes of the two largest constituent companies, the London and North Western Railway and the Midland Railway respectively. At the time of its creation, the LMS had inherited from the 35 merged companies, a system of 7,000 route miles and 19,000 track miles; accounting for 38.4% of the total mileage of the 'big four' grouped railways. It was the owner of 9,319 locomotives, 19,000 passenger-carrying vehicles, and 286,000 wagons. It operated more than 10,600 passenger trains and 15,000 goods trains a day, with a total staff of 231,000. In addition to this, the LMS owned 543 miles of canal, 8,950 horses, 17,000 carts, 2,000 motor vehicles, 64 steamboats and 27 docks, and was the owner of 28 hotels. Joint lines The LMS operated a number of lines jointly with the other main railway companies, Most of these were situated at or near the boundaries between two or more of the companies, but there were some notable examples which extended beyond this borderland zone. Together with the London and North Eastern Railway, the LMS ran the former Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway network. and extended from Peterborough to the East Anglian coast. The M&GN was wholly incorporated into the LNER in 1936. This network connected Bath and Bournemouth, and wound its way through territory nominally allocated to a third railway company, the Great Western. Areas of competition Being geographically the largest, and the most central of the four main post-grouping railway companies, the LMS shared numerous boundaries with both the LNER and GWR, although its overlap with the Southern Railway was limited due to the general lack of direct routes through London. The SR and the LMS were mainly overlapping on the West London Line. Competition with the LNER was mainly in terms of the premium London to Scotland traffic, with the rival LMS (West Coast) and LNER (East Coast) routes competing to provide ever better standards of passenger comfort and faster journey times. The LNER also competed with the LMS for traffic between London, the East Midlands, South Yorkshire and Manchester, with the former Midland main line from St Pancras (LMS) and Great Central Main Line from Marylebone (LNER) both providing express, stopping and local services between these destinations. The London to Birmingham corridor was fiercely contested with the LMS running expresses over its West Coast Main Line via Rugby, and the Great Western running services via Banbury. Northern Ireland The LMS was also the only one of the Big Four companies to operate rail services in Northern Ireland, serving most major settlements in the region. On 1 July 1903, the Midland Railway took over the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway and operated it under the name of Midland Railway (Northern Counties Committee). On grouping, the network became part of the LMS, again operating under the name of the Northern Counties Committee, and consisted of of gauge track with a further of gauge line. ==History==

Formation The LMS was formed from the following major companies: • Caledonian Railway 1,114.4 miles (1,793 km) route length • Furness Railway 158 miles (254 km) • Glasgow and South Western Railway 498.5 miles (802 km) • Highland Railway 506 miles (814 km) • London and North Western Railway (including Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, amalgamated 1 January 1922) 2,667.5 miles (4,292.9 km) • Midland Railway 2,170.75 miles (3,493 km) • North Staffordshire Railway 220.75 miles (355 km) There were also some 24 subsidiary railways, leased or worked by the above companies, and a large number of joint railways, including the UK's largest Joint Railway, the Midland & Great Northern, and one of the most famous, the Somerset & Dorset. The LMS also implemented a novel management structure, breaking with British railway tradition, and mirroring a contemporary management practice more common in the United States, appointing a President and Vice-Presidents. On 4 January 1926, Josiah Stamp was appointed First President of the Executive, heralded a change. Stanier introduced practices used at the Swindon Works that had been introduced by George Jackson Churchward, such as tapered boilers, long travel valves, and large bearings. His locomotives were not only more powerful, and economical, but they also ended the company's internal conflict. The lines in Great Britain were rationalised through closure in the 1950s to 70s but the main routes survive and some have been developed for 125 mph inter-city services. ==Railway operations==

Despite having widespread interests in a number of commercial areas, the LMS was first and foremost a railway organisation. It operated in all four constituent countries of the United Kingdom, The company operated around 7,000 route miles of railway line, servicing 2,944 goods depots and 2,588 passenger stations, using 291,490 freight vehicles, 20,276 passenger vehicles and 9,914 locomotives. Commercial organisation For nearly ten years after its formation, the LMS had been run using a similar organisational structure to one of its constituents, the Midland Railway. In practice this meant that the commercial managers found themselves subservient to the needs of the operating departments. This changed in 1932 when a major restructuring was completed, In 1938 it opened a School of Transport in Derby to train its staff in best railway practice. Railway posters The LMS's commercial success in the 1920s resulted in part from the contributions of English painter, Norman Wilkinson. In 1923, Wilkinson advised Superintendent of Advertising and Publicity of the LMS, T.C Jeffrey, to improve rail sales and other LMS services by incorporating fine art into the design of their advertisement posters. In this time, fine art already had a distinguished association in Europe and North America with good taste, longevity and quality. Jeffrey wanted LMS’ commercial image to align with these qualities and therefore accepted Wilkinson's advice. For the first series of posters, Wilkinson personally invited 16 of his fellow alumni from the Royal Academy of London to take part. In letter correspondence, Wilkinson outlined the details of the LMS proposal to the artists. The artist fee for each participant was £100. The railway poster would measure 50 X 40 inches. In this area, the artist's design would be reproduced as a photolithographic print on double royal satin paper, filling 45 X 35 inches. The mass-produced posters were pasted inside railway stations in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. LMS decided the subject advertised, but choices of style and approach were left to the artist's discretion. LMS’ open design brief resulted in a collection of posters that reflected the large capacity of destinations and experiences available with the transport organisation. For the Irish Free State, Wilkinson designed a poster in 1927 encouraging the public to avail of the LMS ferry and connecting boat trains to Ireland. For this promotion, Wilkinson's design was accompanied with four posters of Ireland by Belfast modernist painter, Paul Henry. The commercial success of Wilkinson and Jeffrey's collaboration manifested between 1924 and 1928, with public sale of 12,000 railway posters. Charter and excursion traffic Charter and excursion trains were a significant source of revenue and the LMS became a specialist in the movement of large numbers of people, with locomotives and rolling stock often kept in operation just to service such seasonal traffic. In one year, the LMS ran 43 special trains to take spectators to the Grand National at Aintree, with a further 1,456 run in connection with the Blackpool Illuminations. Keswick in the English Lake District, The effect of these improvements was significant, with receipts from passenger traffic increasing by £2.9 million () between 1932 and 1938. A number of premium services were offered, culminating in 1937 with the launch of the Coronation Scot, between London St Pancras and Glasgow St Enoch, The Palatine and was even more varied than passenger services, catering for a range of goods from fresh perishables such as milk, fish and meat through to bulk minerals and small consignments sent point to point between individuals and companies. Particularly notable were the Toton–Brent coal trains, which took coal from the Nottinghamshire coalfield to London. ==Traction and rolling stock==

Construction The LMS owned and operated a number of railway works, all of which were inherited from constituent companies. Between them these sites constructed locomotives, coaching stock, multiple units and freight wagons, as well as a number of non-rolling stock items required for the everyday running of the railway. Two facilities were located in Derby, one known as Derby Loco and one as Carriage and Wagon. The former was opened in the 1840s by the North Midland, Midland Counties and Birmingham & Derby railway companies to meet their joint requirements for locomotive, carriage and wagon construction and maintenance. The latter site was opened in the 1860s by the Midland Railway as part of a reorganisation of facilities in Derby and left the original site to concentrate on locomotive manufacture and repair. The Midland Railway also had works at Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, which had been inherited from the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway. The LNWR also contributed several works sites to the LMS. Crewe Works was opened in 1840 by the Grand Junction Railway and by the time of grouping was the locomotive works for the LNWR. Wolverton works in Buckinghamshire had been established by the London and Birmingham Railway in the 1830s, and since 1862 (when all locomotive works had transferred to Crewe) had been the LNWR's carriage works. In 1922, one year prior to the formation of the LMS, the LNWR had absorbed the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, including their works at Horwich in Lancashire, which had opened in 1886. St. Rollox railway works, north east of Glasgow, had been built in 1856 by the Caledonian Railway, while Stoke works in Staffordshire were established in 1864 by the North Staffordshire Railway. Both were absorbed into the LMS with their parent companies, and while the former became the main workshops for the Northern Division of the LMS, the latter works were wound down, closing in 1930, all work being transferred to nearby Crewe. Smaller workshop facilities were also transferred to the LMS by other constituent companies, including at Barrow-in-Furness (Furness Railway), Bow (North London Railway), Kilmarnock (Glasgow and South Western Railway) and Inverness (Highland Railway). The table below shows all major works taken over by the LMS upon formation. Locomotives Coaching stock The LMS inherited a wide variety of passenger rolling stock from its constituent companies, and appointed Robert Whyte Reid, an ex-Midland Railway man, as the head of its Carriage department. Reid had already started to introduce more efficient carriage building practices at the Derby Carriage and Wagon Works of the Midland Railway prior to grouping Most railway carriages were constructed by fitting together component parts which had been roughly machined to larger dimensions than required, which were then cut to the required size and joined together by skilled coachbuilders. Reid's new method involved the use of templates or "jigs" to mass-produce components to a set pattern and size. Once these had been checked any example of a specific part could be used interchangeably with any other of the same type. The technique was applied to any item which could be manufactured in large numbers (as there were significant costs in producing the initial jigs) such as doors, ventilators, windows and seats. The natural progression was to streamline the assembly process and the company introduced a method known as Progressive Construction. In this process the mass-produced parts were combined into "unit assemblies", each of which was a major sub-component of the finished carriage such as side panels, carriage ends or the roof. The workshops were organised on the "flow-line" principle, similar to a modern assembly line, and the unit assemblies were taken to workstations, where the precision machining of the mass-produced parts ensured they all fitted accurately into position, building into a complete carriage as the unit moved along the flow line. Goods wagons Livery Each of the constituent companies of the LMS had their own liveries for locomotives and rolling stock. The board of directors of the LMS was dominated by former Midland Railway officers, and the company adopted the "crimson lake" livery for coaching stock as had been used by the Midland and Glasgow & South Western Railways prior to grouping (with the North Staffordshire Railway using a very similar shade). The livery worked well, proving to be hard wearing and practical. Preservation ==Technical innovation==

Electrification The LMS operated a number of suburban lines using electric traction, in and around London, Liverpool, Manchester and Lancashire. as used by the LMS in the London area, stands at Harrow and Wealdstone station after nationalisation. Schemes in the London area generally used the four-rail system in use by tube and sub-surface railways (such as the Metropolitan Railway). Lines from Bow to Barking, Euston to Watford Junction, Broad Street to Richmond and a number of related branches and connecting lines were already electrified when the LMS came into existence, although the LMS did extend electrification from Barking to Upminster in 1932. In the Liverpool area, lines were electrified using a third rail, energised at 630 V DC. Routes from to and and from Aintree to were already completed prior to the formation of the LMS. Lines from to and were added to this network in 1938. In Manchester, the line from Bury to Manchester Victoria had already been electrified by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway using a side-contact, third rail system. In conjunction with the LNER, the lines of the former Manchester, South Junction and Altrincham Railway were electrified using the 1500 V DC overhead line system, opening on 11 May 1931. Finally the route between and Heysham via had been electrified by the Midland Railway using a 6600 V AC overhead system, as early as 1908. All-steel carriages In 1926, the LMS introduced its "all-steel carriage", which represented a significant departure from previous carriage construction. Previously carriages had been built with wood or steel-plated wood bodies, mounted on heavy underframes. The all-steel carriages differed in that they consisted of a steel tube or box girder, which not only formed the body but also formed the load-bearing part of the carriage, meaning that a heavy underframe was not required. The new technique also meant that the carriages were stronger under collision conditions, as proved during an accident at Dinwoodie – Wamphray on 25 October 1928 when the leading "all-steel" carriage absorbed most of the impact. Construction of the carriages was carried out for the LMS by external companies, largely to provide work for them during a difficult economic period, but within a couple of years the company returned to more conventional construction methods, as it could no longer justify using external contractors due to efficiency improvements within its own workshops, which were set up to produce carriages of more traditional configuration. ==Accidents==

• On 5 July 1923, an express passenger train was in a rear-end collision with a goods train at . Four people were killed. • On 26 April 1924, an electric multiple unit overran signals and was in a rear-end collision with an excursion train at station, London. • On 4 November 1924, an express passenger train was derailed near Lytham St. Annes, Lancashire due to a broken tyre on the locomotive. Fourteen people were killed. • On 19 November 1926, a private owner wagon of a goods train disintegrated near station, Yorkshire, derailing the goods train that it was part of. A signal post was partially knocked over, obstructing the adjacent line. An express passenger train had the sides of its carriages ripped open by the signal post, killing eleven people. A direct consequence of this accident was that private owner wagons had to be registered with railway companies before they were allowed to run on main lines. They were also subject to a detailed inspection every ten years. • On 30 November 1926, a passenger train overran signals at Upney, Essex and was in a rear-end collision with another. Of 604 people injured, only four are hospitalised. • In June 1928, a mail train was derailed at Swinderby, Lincolnshire. • On 8 January 1929, an express passenger train from Bristol, Somerset to Leeds, Yorkshire when it overran signals at , Gloucestershire and collided with a goods train that was being shunted. Four people were killed. • On 2 February 1929, a passenger train was sent into the bay platform at , Glasgow, due to a signalman's error. Several people were injured when the train crashed through the buffers. • On 18 December 1931, a goods train became divided at , Essex. Due to a signalman's error, a passenger train ran into the rear portion of the goods. Two people were killed and several were injured. • On 17 June 1932, a passenger train was derailed at Great Bridgeford, Staffordshire. • On 10 July 1933, an express passenger train was in collision with a goods train and was derailed at Little Salkeld, Cumberland due to a signalman's error. One person was killed and about 30 were injured, one seriously. Contemporaneous newsreel footage shows the aftermath of the four-fold accident. • On 23 February 1937, an express goods train was derailed at , Middlesex. : • On 30 September 1945, an express passenger train was derailed at Bourne End, Hertfordshire due to excessive speed through a set of points. Forty-three people were killed and 64 were injured. • 1946 – Lichfield rail crash; 20 killed and 21 injured. • On 12 April 1947, a passenger train was derailed near Keighley, Yorkshire when a bridge collapsed under it. • On 21 July 1947, an express passenger train was derailed at Grendon, Warwickshire due to defective track. Five people were killed and 64 were injured. ==Non-railway interests==

Canals The LMS owned many canals, originally acquired by some of its constituent companies in the 19th century, such as the Shropshire Union group (which included the Montgomeryshire Canal, Ellesmere Canal and Chester Canal), originally owned by the London and North Western Railway, and the Trent and Mersey Canal, owned by the North Staffordshire Railway. Many were abandoned by an act of Parliament, the (8 & 9 Geo. 6. c. ii), instigated by LMS, including the Ulverston Canal, the Leek branch of the Cauldon Canal, the Shrewsbury Canal, Montgomery Canal, and parts of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, Cromford Canal, and Ashby Canal. The act transferred the small unclosed part of the Huddersfield Canal to the Calder and Hebble Navigation. Those LMS-owned canals surviving in 1948 passed to the Docks and Inland Waterways Executive of the British Transport Commission, and eventually to the British Waterways Board. The British Waterways Act 1988 (c. xxv) allowed British Waterways to re-open the acts closed by the 1944 act for pleasure use. Shipping . This ship was part of the LMS Clyde steamer fleet from 1935 to 1947.The LMS acquired numerous docks, harbours and piers from its predecessors. These ranged in size from major ports at Barrow-in-Furness and Grangemouth through ferry harbours such as Holyhead, Heysham, Stranraer and Fleetwood to much smaller facilities including piers on the Thames and Clyde. The LMS also inherited steamers and piers from the Furness Railway on Windermere and Coniston Water. Ships inherited from the Midland Railway. The LMS also inherited docks at Goole. Road transport In 1933, along with the other three main line railways, the LMS purchased the Hay's Wharf Cartage Company Ltd., the owners of Pickfords, and Carter Paterson. Subsequently, the LMS acquired Joseph Nall & Co. of Manchester and a 51% stake in Wordie & Co. of Glasgow. The LMS operated a road haulage fleet consisting of 29,754 road vehicles. Hotels , Manchester; one of many hotels formerly owned and operated by the LMS.The LMS Hotels & Catering Service, apart from providing catering cars on trains and refreshment facilities at stations also operated a chain of nearly 30 hotels throughout the United Kingdom. Just prior to World War II the department employed 8,000 staff, served over 50 million customers per annum and grossed more than £3 million in receipts () from the combined hotel and catering operations. The scale of the undertaking enabled the LMS to claim that they operated the largest chain of hotels in the British Empire. The range of hotels was extensive ranging from large resort and city centre hotels to much smaller provincial establishments. One of the most famous was the Midland Hotel in Morecambe, which had been rebuilt as an Art Deco landmark, as had the Queens Hotel in Leeds. While most were open all year round, a number opened for only particular months in the year, to coincide with local tourist seasons. ==Notable people==

Chairmen of the board of directors , Chairman of the LMS between 1924 and 1927 • 1923–1924: Charles Lawrence, 1st Baron Lawrence of Kingsgate • 1924–1927: Sir Guy Granet Presidents • 1926–1941: Josiah Stamp (Baron Stamp from 1938) • 1941–1947: Sir William Valentine Wood – 1933 • William Kelly Wallace 1933 – 1948 (previously Locomotive and Civil Engineer [combined] of the Northern Counties Committee in Northern Ireland.) Chief mechanical engineers • 1923–1925: George Hughes • 1925–1931: Henry Fowler • 1932–1944: Sir William Stanier • 1944–1945: Charles Fairburn • 1945–1947: Henry George Ivatt ==Legacy==

The name of the LMS was revived by Govia in the form of the train operating company London Midland which operated services primarily around the West Midlands and services north to Liverpool Lime Street and south to London Euston between 2007 and 2017. LMS was trademarked by the Department for Transport on 14 November 2017 sparking speculation of the name becoming the long term branding for the new InterCity West Coast Partnership franchise, which is scheduled to commence operations on 8 December 2019, branded as Avanti West Coast. ==References==