When did our mainlines get their current names?

[jfowkes]

Happy New Year all! As a New Year's gift for all the nerds and pedants, I have a question: when did our mainlines get their names? For example, when was the first time the words "East Coast Mainline" were used to refer to that route?

 

[DelW]

Happy New Year all! As a New Year's gift for all the nerds and pedants, I have a question: when did our mainlines get their names? For example, when was the first time the words "East Coast Mainline" were used to refer to that route?

There was a brief discussion of this a few months ago:

First use of WCML and ECML names?

When did these names start being used? The former isn't exactly that accurate...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[Dr Hoo]

One of our busiest and most important routes, running through and under London on an East-West axis, only got its name in February 2016 (even before it opened).

(Gets coat… Happy New Year.)

 

[John Webb]

The MML (Midland Main Line) gets its name from its builder, the Midland Railway rather than any particular geographic location - at one time it ran from St Pancras all the way to Carlisle and beyond. Sadly, perhaps, a large chunk in the middle was lost in BR days and it was reduced to a secondary main line. The 'MML' reference seems to be a relatively modern one, and I think may have come about from the privatisation of train services.

 

[30907]

The MML (Midland Main Line) gets its name from its builder, the Midland Railway rather than any particular geographic location - at one time it ran from St Pancras all the way to Carlisle and beyond. Sadly, perhaps, a large chunk in the middle was lost in BR days and it was reduced to a secondary main line. The 'MML' reference seems to be a relatively modern one, and I think may have come about from the privatisation of train services.

As with the other "Main Lines," the word "main" seems to be a relatively modern addition to historic names - "Brighton line" or "West Coast route" for example (of course WC Route survived until the recent Modernisation....).
I'm not sure whether there are any purely modern labels attached to historic routes, though the GW might be an exception, with some of its modern routes dating only from 1900-10.

 

[43096]

The MML (Midland Main Line) gets its name from its builder, the Midland Railway rather than any particular geographic location - at one time it ran from St Pancras all the way to Carlisle and beyond. Sadly, perhaps, a large chunk in the middle was lost in BR days and it was reduced to a secondary main line. The 'MML' reference seems to be a relatively modern one, and I think may have come about from the privatisation of train services.

Roger Ford and Brian Perren's "HSTs at Work", published in 1988, refers to both the Midland Main Line and East Coast Main Line as such: the terms must have been in use as such for some time before that.

 

[midland1]

The 1910 Bradshaw calls the MML as the "Midland Main Line" other lines as the London and North Western Main Line, Great Northern etc. So the Midland is the only one to keep its old company name.

 

[D6130]

Even before the turn of the 20th century, there existed sets of main line carriages called the 'West Coast Joint Stock' - jointly-owned by the London & North Western and Caledonian Railways - and 'East Coast Joint Stock' - jointly-owned by the Great Northern, North Eastern and North British Railways. These vehicles were used on their respective routes for through express services from London to Scotland and vice-versa, so I think we can safely say that the 'West Coast Main Line' and 'East Coast Main Line' had both been designated as such well before the end of the nineteenth century.

 

[30907]

The 1910 Bradshaw calls the MML as the "Midland Main Line" other lines as the London and North Western Main Line, Great Northern etc. So the Midland is the only one to keep its old company name.

Thanks. So "Main Line" is an ancient usage!
A quick check of the 1896 online Bradshaw has
GW Main Line (to Bristol)
LSW (Exeter)
LBSC
SE
(my abbreviations - I looked no further!)

... we can safely say that the 'West Coast Main Line' and 'East Coast Main Line' had both been designated as such well before the end of the nineteenth century.

Round about 1860, from the linked thread.

 

[John Webb]

The 1910 Bradshaw calls the MML as the "Midland Main Line" other lines as the London and North Western Main Line, Great Northern etc. So the Midland is the only one to keep its old company name.

That's very interesting - thanks for posting!

 

[swt_passenger]

Here’s an early reference from Dec 1869, the NBR are explaining Christmas Day service changes on the “East Coast Main Line”.

British Newspaper Archive is good for this sort of thing…

 

[TAS]

By contrast, the West Anglia Main Line (WAML) seems only to have got that name more recently. The earliest references I can find are from the late 90s, by which point it is being used by both the Government and Railtrack.

As far as I can tell (happy to be corrected!) use of the term West Anglia in a railway context only started when Network South East introduced it as a brand in 1989. I assume that the WAML name came about because it was the main line of the West Anglia-branded services? Had there been a previous name, or was it historically not regarded as being an important enough route to be given a name or to be designated as a main line?

 

[PeterC]

By contrast, the West Anglia Main Line (WAML) seems only to have got that name more recently. The earliest references I can find are from the late 90s, by which point it is being used by both the Government and Railtrack.

As far as I can tell (happy to be corrected!) use of the term West Anglia in a railway context only started when Network South East introduced it as a brand in 1989. I assume that the WAML name came about because it was the main line of the West Anglia-branded services? Had there been a previous name, or was it historically not regarded as being an important enough route to be given a name or to be designated as a main line?

The West Anglia name is definitely modern, I can only recall the London end being referred to as the Lea Valley Line and don't remember any special name for the Cambridge route as a whole.

I don't recall the Great Eastern name in BR days. If it was used internally it certainly didn't enter the consciousness of teenage train spotters.

 

[Railwaysceptic]

The West Anglia name is definitely modern, I can only recall the London end being referred to as the Lea Valley Line and don't remember any special name for the Cambridge route as a whole.

I don't recall the Great Eastern name in BR days. If it was used internally it certainly didn't enter the consciousness of teenage train spotters.

As a London train spotter circa 1954/1960, I agree completely.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Here’s an early reference from Dec 1869, the NBR are explaining Christmas Day service changes on the “East Coast Main Line”.

The term "Main Line" basically goes back to the dawn of railways. Wishaw's Railways of Great Britain & Ireland, published in 1842 describes most if not all of the routes in operation at that time. For example, the entry for the Ardrossan & Johnstone Railway, which was originally constructed as a 4-foot 6-inch gauge route after obtaining its Act in 1826 describes its "Main Line" as distinct from the "Branches" to Doura and Fergus Hill.

The Stockton & Darlington Railway, which obtained its Act even earlier is also described in terms of its Main Line from the River Tees in Stockton to Witton Park Colliery (well to the west of Darlington) and Branches to Middlesbrough, Yarm and so forth.

 

[OVS Flatbottom]

The term "Main Line" basically goes back to the dawn of railways. Wishaw's Railways of Great Britain & Ireland, published in 1842 describes most if not all of the routes in operation at that time. For example, the entry for the Ardrossan & Johnstone Railway, which was originally constructed as a 4-foot 6-inch gauge route after obtaining its Act in 1826 describes its "Main Line" as distinct from the "Branches" to Doura and Fergus Hill.

Not 100% sure, but I believe the terminology of main and branch lines may actually be of canal (i.e. pre-railway) origin. Certainly I've heard it used a lot with reference to canals.

 

[midland1]

When the first diesel workings started from Liverpool St. loco D200 had a headboard " First 2000hp Diesel London Norwich Progress by Great Eastern"

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

The 1910 Bradshaw calls the MML as the "Midland Main Line" other lines as the London and North Western Main Line, Great Northern etc. So the Midland is the only one to keep its old company name.

I think the term "Midland Main Line" also referred to the Derby-Birmingham-Bristol route as it was an integral part of the core Midland Railway network.
Its use as the main "cross-country" route dates only from the 1950s BR period really, when the revised geographic Regions carved up the original Midland network (to the NE, E and W Regions, as well as a central LM section).
The GC and trans-Pennine routes got the same treatment.