Eastern Region

The Eastern Region was formed from the southern portion of the London and North Eastern Railway on 1 January 1948, when British Railways took over the LNER as a whole and split it into two: an Eastern Region worked from Liverpool Street and a North Eastern Region to the north. In 1960 the region ran three very different main lines out of London, one of them the fastest steam-worked route in the country, and it was on the point of a change of traction that would end the reign of the Pacific locomotive on the East Coast expresses.

Territory

The region worked the southern part of the old LNER system. Its principal route was the southern East Coast Main Line from Kings Cross as far as Doncaster, beyond which the North Eastern Region took over for the run north to York, Newcastle, and the Scottish border. From Liverpool Street it ran the Great Eastern main line to Norwich and the network of lines across East Anglia. Out of Marylebone it inherited the former Great Central London Extension, and from Fenchurch Street the intensive London, Tilbury and Southend line. Four London termini therefore fell within its boundary: Kings Cross, Liverpool Street, Fenchurch Street, and Marylebone.

Inherited constituents

Through the LNER the region descended from three of the pre-Grouping companies: the Great Northern Railway, which built the East Coast route out of Kings Cross; the Great Eastern Railway, whose territory was East Anglia and the Liverpool Street suburban lines; and the Great Central Railway, the last main line to reach London, by way of the Marylebone extension. Each had brought its own locomotive practice and operating character into the LNER at the 1923 Grouping, and much of that distinctiveness could still be read in the region in 1960. The wider picture is set out in the constituents section.

Motive power in 1960

The East Coast expresses were still worked by the Gresley and Peppercorn Pacifics, the A1, A2, A3, and streamlined A4 classes, assisted on the heaviest trains by the Gresley V2 2-6-2s, a design often reckoned among the most useful mixed-traffic engines in the country. The Thompson and Peppercorn B1 4-6-0s covered general mixed-traffic work across the region. On the Great Eastern main line the BR Standard Britannia Pacifics had, through the 1950s, transformed the timings to Norwich, giving that route a standard of express running it had never had under steam before. Change was close, however: the English Electric Deltic diesels were about to enter service from 1961 and would displace the Pacifics from the fastest East Coast duties. Allocations for 1960 are recorded in the Ian Allan ABC of British Railways Locomotives, Combined Volume, and the LNER classes are documented in Yeadon’s Register of LNER Locomotives. The Deltics have their own Class 55 feature.

Beeching and after

The region lost heavily under the Reshaping Report. Much of the rural network of East Anglia was cut through the 1960s, and among the notable later closures was the Great Central London Extension, closed as a through main line despite having been built to a generous main-line standard. What survived includes the East Coast route from Kings Cross, the Great Eastern main line to Norwich, and the Fenchurch Street commuter lines, all still busy today. The Beeching context is set out in the closures section, and the region sits alongside the others in the regions overview.