The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS¹) was a British railway company. It was formed in 1923 by the forced Grouping of over 300 separate railway companies into just four. It was an unwieldy construction, claiming to be the world's largest transport organization, and the largest commercial undertaking in Europe (although they did not say on what basis), including the largest chain of hotels. In 1938, the LMS operated 6,870 route miles of railway (excluding lines in Northern Ireland), but it was not very profitable with a rate of return of only 2.7%. It was nationalised in 1948.

Constituents

The LMS was formed from the following major companies:

• Caledonian Railway
• Furness Railway
• Glasgow and South Western Railway
• Highland Railway
• Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
• London and North Western Railway
• Midland Railway
• North Staffordshire Railway

Plus about several other minor railways, interests in Ireland and various shareholdings see List of constituents of the LMS

Geography

Comtemporary 1935 map of LMS system. Other railways' lines are omitted.

The LMS principle trunk routes were the West Coast Main Line and the Midland Main Line which linked London, the industrial Midlands and North-West and Scotland.

The railway's main business was the transportation of freight between these major industrial centres. Particularly notable were the Toton-Brent coal trains which took coal from the Nottinghamshire coalfield to London.

History

Early History

The early history of the LMS is dominated by infighting between its two largest constituents, the Midland and the North Western, previously two fierce rivals. Men from each of which believed that their companies way was the right - and only way of doing business. Generally, the Midland prevailed, with the adoption of many Midland practices, such as the livery of crimson lake for passenger locomotives and rolling stock. Perhaps most notably however was the continuation of the Midland Railway's small engine policy.

The Stanier Revolution

The arrival of the new Chief Mechanical Engineer William Stanier, who was head-hunted from the Great Western Railway by Josiah Stamp in 1933 heralded a change in the LMS. Stanier introduced new ideas rather than continuing with the company's internal conflict.

Nationalisation

The LMS was nationalised in 1948 by the Transport Act 1947, becoming part of British Railways. It formed the London Midland Region and part of the Scottish Region. Lines in Northern Ireland were taken into the Ulster Transport Authority (?)

Preservation

Topics

Note: Suggested topics

• People
  • Presidents
    • Josiah Stamp
  • Chief Mechanical Engineers of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway
    • George Hughes
    • Henry Fowler
    • Ernest Lemon
    • William Stanier
    • Charles Fairburn
    • Henry George Ivatt

• Rolling Stock
  • Locomotives of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway
  • Coaches of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway
  • Wagons of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway

• Trains
  • Named trains of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway

• Others
  • Suburban electrification of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway

Further Reading

For a general overview see Whitehouse, P (1997) LMS 150, ISBN 0862880718

External Links

• The LMS society (http://lms-society.org.uk/)

Footnote

¹It has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. However the London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally used in historical circles. The LMS occasionally also used the initials LM&SR. For consistency, Wikipedia uses the initials LMS. ^^ back to top