Midland Railway

The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom, which existed from 1844 to 1922. It was formed in 1844 by the merger of the Midland Counties Railway, the North Midland Railway, and the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway.

Almost immediately, it took over the Leicester and Swannington Railway and the Sheffield and Rotherham Railway in 1845, but it was not until 1870 that a through route via Sheffield to the north was opened, from Chesterfield. It also absorbed the Mansfield and Pinxton Railway in 1847 building a connection of the latter between Chesterfield and Trent Junction at Long Eaton along the Erewash Valley, giving access to the Nottinghamshire coalfields.

In 1846 it took over the Birmingham and Bristol Railway in the face of the GWR's plans to extend to Birmingham, after a legendary chance meeting on a train, of the Midland's James Ellis and two Birmingham & Gloucester directors. Previously, in 1845 the so-called "Battle of the Gauges" had resulted in a competition between the GWR's Ixion and two narrow gauge locomotives, Stephenson's 'Engine A', and the ex-North Midland Railway 'No.54 Stephenson.' The latter, an earlier Stephenson "long boiler," ran off the line after 22 miles. In 1854, the line was converted to standard gauge, initially as mixed gauge track with three rails so that both broad and standard gauge trains could run on it.

The Midland pioneered the use of gas lighting for trains in Britain, put third-class carriages on all its trains in 1872, and abolished second class in 1875, giving third class passengers the level of comfort formerly afforded to second class passengers (elsewhere some third class passengers travelled in open wagons). This was an entirely pragmatic move - the second class seats were not well patronised - but controversial. Interestingly, there had been considerable resentment, on the part of the third class passengers, at the 'toffs' using it, at least for short journeys. Others saw it as promoting the working class above their social station. The railway also introduced the first British Pullman supplementary-fare cars. The non-contiguous numbering of classes, with 1st and 3rd class only, continued until 1956, when third class was renamed second.

The company was grouped into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) on January 1, 1923 and was the most influential of the pre-grouping companies that formed the LMS.