The Midland Railway increased its sphere of operation and influence through its part ownership of joint lines, through running powers over other companies’ lines, through working arrangements with other companies, and even financial support to other companies.

The Midland was a co-owner of the three largest joint lines in England and the largest in Scotland and Ireland. By far the most important of these was the Cheshire Lines, in which from 1866 it had a third share, along with the Manchester Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (later Great Central) and the Great Northern Railway. This gave the Midland access to the great industrial centre of Manchester and the port of Liverpool, in the 19^th century the most important international port in Britain. The Midland established what remain the most famous hotels in those cities, the Adelphi and the Midland. Midland expresses ran from Manchester Central and Liverpool Central stations to the Midlands and London, whilst the company’s goods trains ran to the company’s own goods stations at Ancoats (Manchester) and Brunswick and Sandon Dock (Liverpool).

[RFB91654: A Midland express leaving Manchester Central station behind 4-4-0 Compound No. 1018, 30 June 1911]

[RFB92844″ Liverpool Sandon Dock goods station photographed from the first floor of the Midland warehouse, 27 July 1922.]

By far the most famous, though possibly least remunerative, of the Midland’s joint lines was the Somerset & Dorset, which it took on a long lease with the London & South Western Railway in 1874. This line gave the Midland access to Bournemouth, an important destination for first class travel, and for goods and coal traffic from the Midlands to stations on the western section of the LSWR’s system, bypassing the Great Western. The division of responsibilities between the two companies led to Derby being responsible for locomotive affairs, so the Joint Line long had a distinctive Midland look, though the renowned crimson lake of Midland engines and carriages was replaced with an equally distinctive dark blue livery.

The third, and by route mileage, longest joint line was the Midland & Great Northern, whose ownership was exactly as described in its title. It was formed in 1893 by the acquisition of the Eastern & Midlands Railway, parts of which were already being worked by the two companies. This line, straddling south Lincolnshire and Norfolk from west to east, provided the Midland with a route from the Midlands to the popular holiday resorts of the North Norfolk Coast and to the then-important ports of Kings Lynn and Great Yarmouth, for the export of coal and import of Baltic timber. As for the S&DJR, Derby was ultimately responsible for locomotive power, supplying S.W. Johnson’s designs of 4-4-0 passenger and 0-6-0 goods engines, turned out in the famous ‘golden gorse’ livery.

[RFB92380: A M&GN Class C 4-4-0 brings a train for Leicester off the swing bridge at Sutton Bridge.]

In Scotland, the Midland had a quarter-share in the Portpatrick & Wigtownshire Joint Railway from 1885, along with the London & North Western, Caledonian, and Glasgow & South Western Railways. This line became especially important to the Midland from 1903, following the company’s acquisition of the Belfast & Northern Counties Railway, with a sleeping car service being provided between St Pancras and Stranraer in connection with the steamers to Larne. The B&NCR became the Northern Counties Committee of the Midland Railway, NCC(MR).

[RFB06764: “First class ticket, Derry to London St Pancras, via the NCC, saloon in the boat from Larne to Stranraer, and thence over the Portpatrick & Wigtownshire joint Railway. Issued on 31 May 1905.]

Following the establishment of the Northern Counties Committee, the Midland, jointly with the Great Northern Railway of Ireland, in 1906 took over the 3 ft gauge Donegal Railway, forming the County Donegal Railways Joint Committee. At 106 route miles, this was the largest 3 ft gauge system in Ireland. The Midland already had 3 ft gauge lines within the NCC: the Ballymena and Larne and the Portrush tramway. With the opening of the Burton & Ashby tramway in 1906, The Midland was operating public railways of more gauges than any other British railway company: 4’ 8½” and 3’ 6” in England and 5’ 3” and 3’ 0” in Ireland.

[RFB02076: Handbill from 1904 promoting tourism in the area served by the Northern Counties committee and the County Donegal Railways Joint Committee.]

The Midland was a partner in many more joint lines over which both its trains and those of the partner companies ran – more than any other railway company. In association with running powers – the statutory right to operate trains over another company’s lines – these gave the company access to numerous profitable sources of traffic, such as the London Docks and areas of the South Yorkshire coalfield. The most extensive use of running powers was over the lines of the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway in Lancashire. The Midland operated with its own locomotives and carriages the entire express passenger service between Manchester and Liverpool and Hellifield, via Bolton and Blackburn, in connection with the Scotch expresses, to Blackburn from Manchester, and its own goods trains over these routes. Midland trains reached York by way of the Sinton & Knottingley joint Line and running powers over the North Eastern Railway.

[RFB91271: Johnson 1798 class 0-6-0 No. 3727 passing through Bolton (L&YR) station with an express goods train for Manchester, c. 1908.]

The Midland exercised running powers over the London Tilbury and Southend Railway, providing a passenger service between St Pancras and Southend and access to Tilbury Docks, until in 1912, the company bought the LT&SR.

[RFB72112: 2-4-0 No. 138 heads a St Pancras to Southend train through Hornsea Road Station on the Tottenham & Hampstead Joint Line in 1898.]

From the opening of the Leicester and Hitchin line in 1857 until the opening of the London Extension to St Pancras in 1868, Midland trains reached London by running powers over the Great Northern Railway to Kings Cross. Running powers worked both ways: following the opening of the Dore and Chinley line in 1894, the Great Northern exercised running powers for its goods trains to Manchester, in preference to using the more difficult Woodhead route of its former partner, the Manchester Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway. This was but one of many such arrangements: the Great Eastern Railway used St Pancras as the station for some of its Cambridge expresses, while the Hull & Barnsley railway operated a passenger service between Hull and Sheffield and regular excursions to Leeds. The London & North Western ran over Midland lines to reach Derby, Nottingham, and Leicester.

Following the opening of the Settle & Carlisle line in 1876, the Midland started running its celebrated Scotch Expresses in partnership with two Scottish railways: the Glasgow & South Western Railway for Glasgow and the west of Scotland and the North British Railway for Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and, via Perth and the Highland Railway, Inverness. The Midland was a guarantor of the Forth Bridge Railway Company. North of Carlisle, the Scotch Expresses were worked by engines of the Scottish companies. The demands of working heavy trains including Pullman cars over these demanding routes led to the introduction of two historically-important classes of locomotives: James Stirling’s 6 class 4-4-0s of the G&SWR, the first engines of that wheel arrangement in Scotland, and Dugald Drummond’s ‘Abbotsford’ 4-4-0s of the NBR, which established the characteristic ‘Scottish 4-4-0’ that was to become a familiar sight from Inverness to Waterloo. At first the Midland provided the carriages for these trains but from 1879 a fleet of carriages of Midland design but jointly owned by the three companies was established: the Midland Scotch Joint Stock. With the introduction of corridor carriages in 1898, the joint stock was divided into separate Midland & Glasgow & South Western and Midland & North British fleets.

[88-2014-0070: Midland & South Western Joint Stock third class dining carriage No.4, built in 1893 for the introduction of dining facilities on the afternoon London St Pancras – Glasgow St Enoch expresses.]

The Midland’s advertising made much of the route to Glasgow passing through the ‘Land of Burns’ and the Waverley route to Edinburgh taking in the ‘haunts of Sir Walter Scott’. The company’s relationship with the G&SWR was especially close. Matthew William Thompson, the Midland’s chairman in the 1880s, was also chairman of the G&SWR (and of the Forth Bridge Company). Attempts were made at amalgamation. These failed partly through the lack of physical connection between the two railways – G&SWR trains ran over the Caledonian Railway between Gretna Junction and Carlisle – but chiefly because the Scottish company’s shareholders didn’t think they were being offered a good enough deal.

In addition to the through trains to Scotland, the Midland made much use of through carriages to destinations on other railways, such as the Kent Coast resorts, via the London Chatham and Dover Railway (from 1899 the South Eastern and Chatham). There was even a through carriage run between the Midland’s station at Swansea and Aberystwyth, via Three Cocks Junction and the Cambrian Railways. How many passengers actually made the journey is a matter for speculation!

The Midland had a route to Southampton, increasingly important in the early 20^th century for goods traffic, via the Midland & South Western Junction Railway. This independent company connected the two lines in its title, the Midland at Cheltenham (in fact over a short length of Great Western line) and the London & South Western at Andover. The Midland supported the M&SWJR by providing loans to enable it to increase capacity by doubling parts of its single line; similar financial support was given to the Hull & Barnsley Railway, which gave the Midland access to another important port, Kingston upon Hull.

[RFB91567: M&SWJ 2-4-0T No. 8 in the carriage sidings north of Cheltenham station, waiting to draw its train into the station, c. 1900.]

Perhaps the most significant partnership the Midland entered into was the working agreement of 1908 with the London & North Western and Lancashire and Yorkshire, which aimed to reduce the operating costs of the three companies by a greater degree of traffic sharing and the elimination of duplicate facilities and services. This agreement may be said to have laid the foundations for the formation of the London Midland & Scottish Railway at the 1923 grouping.