East Coast (Railway companies) Conference

This series documents the establishment and administration of the East Coast Railways Conference.

The series contains minutes of meetings of East Coast railway companies relating principally to the Scottish services of the Great Northern and North Eastern railway companies and also from before and after the conference was established.

Files relating to the North British and Caledonian Railways are held at the National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh.

Topics

Railways

The Great Northern, North Eastern and North British railway companies had operated jointly owned railway coaches on the through East Coast Route (London Kings Cross to Edinburgh via Peterborough, Grantham, Doncaster and Newcastle) since 1860.

In January 1868, Seymour Clarke, General Manager of the Great Northern, drew the attention of the board to the fact that the North British had a joint-purse arrangement with the Caledonian Railway Company and that there were plans for the two companies to amalgamate. As the Caledonian was a partner in the rival West Coast Route, he suggested that a conference of the East Coast railways should be formally established to prevent such an arrangement; hence the East Coast (railway companies) Conference. A parliamentary Bill to merge the North British and Caledonian Railways was eventually dropped in 1871.

The conference remained in existence until the three companies were grouped, with other companies, to form the London and North Eastern Railway in 1923.