Catalogue description Great Eastern Railway Company

The GER was formed by the amalgamation of the East Anglian Railway Company, Eastern Counties Railway Company, East Suffolk Railway Company, Eastern Union Railway Company and Norfolk Railway Company under the powers of the Great Eastern Railway Act 1862.

The new company's system extended from London Liverpool Street Station through the North-eastern suburbs of London to East Anglia, comprising of some 1,050 miles of route with many interests in London's Docklands. It did not directly own any lines north of the Wash but did reach Doncaster, via Spalding, Lincoln and Gainsborough by a line jointly owned with the Great Northern Railway Company. This and other lines gave the GER 140 miles of jointly owned track. Other lines were authorised and other railways were taken over until the GER had 1,217 miles of railway in its ownership and 150 miles of joint railways by 1922.

On 1 Jan 1923, the GER became part of the London and North Eastern Railway Company by the North Eastern, Eastern and East Scottish Group Amalgamation Scheme 1922.