London, Midland and Scottish Railway

London, Midland and Scottish Railway

Crest of the LMS on a railway carriage
Overview
Headquarters	Euston House, London
Reporting mark	LMS
Locale	England; Northern Ireland; Scotland; Wales
Dates of operation	1 January 1923[1]–1 January 1948
Predecessor	London and North Western Railway Midland Railway Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway North Staffordshire Railway Furness Railway Caledonian Railway Glasgow and South Western Railway Highland Railway
Successor	British Railways: London Midland Region Scottish Region Ulster Transport Authority: Northern Counties Committee (1949) [2]
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) in Northern Ireland
Electrification	600 or 650 V DC third rail 630 V DC third and fourth rail 1,200 V DC side contact third rail 6.6 kV 25 Hz AC overhead
Length	7,790 miles (12,537 km)

The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS^[a]) was a British railway company. It was formed on 1 January 1923 under the Railways Act 1921,^[1] which required the grouping of over 120 separate railways into four. The companies merged into the LMS included the London and North Western Railway, the Midland Railway, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (which had previously merged with the London and North Western Railway on 1 January 1922), several Scottish railway companies (including the Caledonian Railway), and numerous other, smaller ventures.

Besides being the world's largest transport organisation, the company was also the largest commercial enterprise in the British Empire and the United Kingdom's second largest employer, after the Post Office.^[3]

In 1938, the LMS operated 6,870 miles (11,056 km) of railway (excluding its lines in Northern Ireland), but its profitability was generally disappointing, with a rate of return of only 2.7%. Under the Transport Act 1947, along with the other members of the "Big Four" British railway companies (Great Western Railway, London and North Eastern Railway and Southern Railway), the LMS was nationalised on 1 January 1948, becoming part of the state-owned British Railways.

The LMS was the largest of the Big Four railway companies^[4] serving routes in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

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