page_title: Midland Railway
section_title: Later history
hierarchical_section_title: Midland Railway / History / Later history
caption_attribution_description: 44422 and 76079 on a passenger train
context_page_description: The Midland Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It amalgamated with several other railways to create the London, Midland and Scottish Railway at grouping in 1922.
  The Midland had a large network of lines emanating from Derby, stretching to London St Pancras, Manchester, Carlisle, Birmingham, and the South West. It expanded as much through acquisitions as by building its own lines. It also operated ships from Heysham in Lancashire to Douglas and Belfast. A large amount of the Midland's infrastructure still remains in use and visible, such as the Midland main line, Settle–Carlisle line, and multiple of its large railway hotels still hold the name Midland Hotel.
context_section_description: The Nottingham and Melton Line of the Midland Railway opened for goods traffic on 1 December 1879 and for passenger traffic on 1 March 1880.
  By the middle of the decade investment had been paid for; passenger travel was increasing, with new comfortable trains; and the mainstay of the line – goods, particularly minerals – was increasing dramatically.
  Allport retired in 1880, to be succeeded by John Noble and then by George Turner. By the new century the quantity of goods, particularly coal, was clogging the network. The passenger service was acquiring a reputation for lateness. Lord Farrar reorganised the expresses, but by 1905 the whole system was so overloaded that no one was able to predict when many of the trains would reach their destinations. At this point Sir Guy Granet took over as General Manager. He introduced a centralised traffic control system, and the locomotive power classifications that became the model for those used by British Railways.
  The MR acquired other lines, including the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway in 1903 and the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway in 1912. It had running rights on some lines, and it developed lines in partnership with other railways, being involved in more 'Joint' lines than any other. In partnership with the GN it owned the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway to provide connections from the Midlands to East Anglia, the UK's biggest joint railway. The MR provided motive power for the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway, and was a one-third partner in the Cheshire Lines Committee.
  In 1913 the company achieved a total revenue of £15,129,136 (equivalent to £1,499,670,000 in 2019) with working expenses of £9,416,981 (equivalent to £933,450,000 in 2019).
caption: Midland locomotive visiting the North Norfolk Railway, once part of the M&GN, which the Midland part owned
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