The Great Northern Railway (GNR) was a British railway company incorporated in 1846 with the object of building a line from London to York. It quickly saw that seizing control of territory was key to development, and it acquired, or took leases of, many local railways, whether actually built or not. In so doing, it overextended itself financially.

Nevertheless, it succeeded in reaching into the coalfields of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire, as well as establishing dominance in Lincolnshire and north London. Bringing coal south to London was dominant, but general agricultural business, and short- and long-distance passenger traffic, were important activities too. Its fast passenger express trains captured the public imagination, and its Chief Mechanical Engineer Nigel Gresley became a celebrity.

Anglo-Scottish travel on the East Coast Main Line became commercially important; the GNR controlled the line from London to Doncaster and allied itself with the North Eastern Railway and the North British Railway so as to offer seamless travel facilities.

The main line railways of Great Britain were "grouped" following the Railways Act 1921 into one or other of four new larger concerns. The Great Northern Railway was a constituent of the London and North Eastern Railway, which took control at the beginning of 1923. Although many local lines have been closed, much of the network is active today.

Parliamentary authorisation In 1836, a railway to be called the Great Northern Railway was proposed. It was to run from Whitechapel in east London via Cambridge and Lincoln to York. However, this was a stupendously ambitious project for such an early date, and Parliament turned it down.

By 1844 there was only one trunk railway from London to the north of England: the London and Birmingham Railway was in an uneasy alliance with the Grand Junction Railway, which in turn connected with the North Union Railway which connected to Preston and Fleetwood. Scottish travellers made use of a steamer service from Fleetwood to Ardrossan.

This was the period of the Railway Mania, when myriad schemes, not all of them realistic, were promoted, and anyone could get rich quickly if they were not caught with a failed scheme. At this time George Hudson, a railway financier, was exceptionally skilled in promoting railways and having them built, and most particularly of neutralising or destroying any opposition or competition to his lines. His methods were not always respectable.

Some promoters wanted to build a railway from London to York, and after much negotiation with promoters of other lines that might connect or compete, a London and York Railway was submitted to the 1845 session of Parliament. There were 224 railway bills in that session, and the Board of Trade was instructed to set up a committee to assess groups of proposed lines; the committee became known as the Five Kings. When the London and York Railway scheme came before the parliamentary committees, Hudson set up such a protracted series of objections that the project ran out of parliamentary time in that session.

The London and York Railway scheme was submitted to the 1846 session of Parliament; some other schemes for railways to the north had by now fallen by the wayside, and their supporters joined the London and York project; reflecting that, the proposed company name was altered to the Great Northern Railway. George Hudson continued to use his dubious methods to frustrate the scheme, but on 26 June the (9 & 10 Vict. c. lxxi) was given royal assent. Numerous branches earlier proposed had been deleted, but the main line was approved. Authorised capital was £5.6 million. The company had spent £590,355 on parliamentary expenses.

The authorised line was from London ("Pentonville") via Huntingdon, Peterborough, Grantham, Retford, Doncaster and Selby to a junction with the Great North of England Railway, just south of York Station. Also included in the act was a loop from Werrington Junction, north of Peterborough, via Spalding to Boston, Lincoln to Gainsborough and back on to the main line at Bawtry.

Land acquisition proved to be difficult; in particular, the King's Cross site was occupied by a smallpox hospital. The freeholder demanded an impossibly large price to vacate, and the matter had to go before a jury. This, and the subsequent removal of the hospital to new premises, would incur a huge delay. The GNR board decided to make a temporary London terminal at Maiden Lane.

The company undertook some extraordinary commitments at this time. It arranged to purchase the Stamford and Spalding Railway; this would form a loop from north of Peterborough back on to the GNR Loop Line near Crowland; and lease at 6% of the Royston and Hitchin Railway, the East Lincolnshire Railway (Boston to Great Grimsby; both authorised, but neither yet built) and the Boston, Stamford and Birmingham Railway (never built). It also took about a third-of-a-million-pounds-worth of shares in the South Yorkshire Railway.

Getting started 1846 was a peak year for railway scheme authorisations, fuelled by the feverish hunt for quick riches in railway shares. The bubble burst the following year when the Panic of 1847 made it almost impossible to get investment money, especially for railway projects already authorised. pp. 282–283Wrottesley, volume I, p. 28

The Great Northern Railway directors had a dauntingly large railway network to build, and they had to prioritise the parts of their authorised network which they would start to construct. In the second half of 1847, the directors, owing to the state of the Money Market... decided to abstain from letting the works from Doncaster to York. But at the end of July a further small contract was let to Messrs. Peto & Betts for the works from ... Doncaster, northwards to Askern, with the object of forming an "end-on" junction there with the branch of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Company, over which... the Great Northern had just obtained power to run its trains to Wakefield and to Methley on the way to Leeds.Askern is frequently referred to in source material. It is a small town about two miles north west of Shaftholme Junction, which is normally taken as the connecting point of the GNR, the York and Newcastle Railway (later the North Eastern Railway) and the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Knottingley line. It appears that "Askern" is used to refer to the intended junction, which was in a remote and as yet nameless location. See Wrottesley, volume I, p. 17; Grinling, p. 66; Tomlinson, p. 502; and Great Northern News (periodical of the Great Northern Railway Society), , March–April 2019, p. 224.09Charles H Grinling, The History of the Great Northern Railway, 1845-1895, Methuen & Co, London, 1898, OCLC 560899371, p. 67

The directors decided to build the Loop Line first, as that was the easiest to complete in order to start earning income.

Construction The first portion of the Great Northern Railway was opened on 1 March 1848. It was actually on the leased East Lincolnshire Railway line, from Great Grimsby to Louth. Five trains ran each way every weekday, and on from Grimsby to New Holland on the River Humber, by alliance with the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway. This was followed by the opening from Louth to Firsby on 3 September 1848. On 2 October 1848, the line was opened from Firsby to a temporary station at Boston.Wrottesley, volume I, p. 33.

The GNR opened a section of its own line from StockbridgeStockbridge was about halfway between Doncaster and the later Shaftholme Junction; it was renamed Arksey station shortly afterwards. and Askern, and the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway opened from Knottingley. There was a formal opening on 5 June 1848 and a public opening two days later;The L&YR section opened fully on 6 June and the GNR section on 7 June. at that stage the L&YR operated the passenger trains. On 5 August 1848 the GNR section was extended south to a temporary Doncaster station, and a goods service was operated.Wrottesley, volume I, p. 36.

Part of the Loop Line was soon ready, and 58 miles from Walton Junction (near Peterborough, on the newly opened Midland Railway) to Lincoln opened on 17 October 1848. The line was double except for a mile at Boston, which was made double track by a deviation on 11 May 1850.Wrottesley, volume I, p. 37.

Captain Wynne viewed the line from Lincoln to Gainsborough on 29 March 1849, but refused permission to open until signals were provided at the swing bridge at Brayford Mere (Lincoln); the line opened on 9 April 1849 when they had been provided. The route made a junction with the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway at Gainsborough; GNR trains reversed at the junction and used the MS&LR station at Gainsborough. A junction was made with the MS&LR line at Durham Ox Junction, Lincoln, some time after 3 April 1848, and sanctioned by Parliament retrospectively.Wrottesley, volume I, pp. 41–42

The direct line between Peterborough and Doncaster was known as the Towns Line. The first part of it was opened between the MS&LR station at Retford and Doncaster on 4 September 1849. A proper station at Doncaster was built and ready by the middle of 1851.Wrottesley, volume I, p. 43

By this means, the GNR was able to start a service between London and Leeds using running powers and agreements over other lines in a roundabout routing northward from Retford; George Hudson tried to repudiate his earlier undertaking to permit this, but at this time his disgraceful methods had come to light, and he had resigned from the Midland Railway and several other boards; the train service started on 1 October 1848.Wrottesley, volume I, p. 44

The York and North Midland Railway was urging the GNR to use the Y&NMR line from Knottingley to York, shortly to be opened, and to abandon the GNR's plans for its own line to York. After considerable deliberation, the GNR agreed to this on 6 June 1850.Wrottesley, volume I, pp. 48–49

By arrangement with the MS&LR the GNR started running trains between Lincoln and Sheffield on 7 August 1850; the trains were routed over the MS&LR from Sykes Junction, a few miles north of Lincoln.

London opening at last

The London (Maiden Lane) to Peterborough line was ready for a demonstration opening run on 5 August 1850, and it was opened to the public on 7 August 1850; eight passenger trains were run each way daily, with three on Sundays. On 8 August 1850 trains started running through from London to York. The Maiden Lane terminal was referred to by the company as "King's Cross". A through train to Edinburgh was run from 2 September 1850; the train ran via Peterborough, Boston, Lincoln, Retford, Doncaster, Knottingley, Milford Junction and York, thence by the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway (not yet open on a direct route).Wrottesley, volume I, pp. 53–54

Goods traffic started on the main line from 12 December 1850, and the Hitchin to Royston line was opened on 21 October 1850; this was extended to Shepreth on 3 August 1851.Wrottesley, volume I, pp. 54–55 Captain Mark Huish had been appointed General Manager of the London and North Western Railway on its formation in 1846. Huish was a skilful railway diplomat, and while his methods were generally more proper than Hudson's, they were aggressive in finding means of disadvantaging competitors, such as the GNR.

From the outset the Great Northern Railway had been anxious to acquire local railways or at least make arrangements with them, in order to expand the company's territory. In 1852 the shareholders expressed their displeasure at the volume of financial commitments implied by these, but the Chairman Edmund Denison continued his policy, without showing his hand.Wrottesley, volume I, p. 66

Opening of the Towns Line