For enthusiasts, researchers and modellers of the Great Eastern Railway

Image

Welcome to the Great Eastern Railway Society website

We hope visitors will find plenty of interest about the former Great Eastern Railway (GER), its predecessors, successors and related railways in the East Anglia area.

The Society caters for all aspects of the railway, both historical and modern day. We take an interest not only in the GER (1862-1922) but also its predecessors such as the Eastern Counties Railway and its successors including the GE Section of the LNER and BR, right through to the present day Network Rail and the Train Operating Companies. Other associated railways in the region are also covered, including the London, Tilbury & Southend Railway, the Colne Valley and Halstead Railway, the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway and the Southwold Railway.

Our members include general enthusiasts, serious railway researchers, ex-railwaymen, dedicated railway modellers, owners/users of ex-GER buildings and librarians/archivists. So browse the site to see how the Great Eastern Railway Society (GERS) can help you.

Claud Hamilton

The GER Society

gercrestwebThe Society was formed in 1973 in order to promote a widespread interest in the Great Eastern Railway, to encourage and co-ordinate research into its history, and to provide a permanent record of the results. This is being achieved by building upon the knowledge of the known GER experts, and by locating and studying all surviving records of the railway...

Continue reading

The Great Eastern Railway

batswingThe GER was created in 1862 from the amalgamation of most of the then existing smaller railways in East Anglia. From then until absorption into the LNER at the 1923 Grouping, it was the dominant railway company in East Anglia, only facing competition from the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway to the north and the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway to the south. Although not a wealthy railway, by 1923 it had more passenger traffic than any other constituent company and possessed the greatest number of carriages.

 Continue reading

LNER Magazine

top image

The London and North Eastern Railway Magazine was a staff magazine. Although the GER had become a consituent part of the new LNER in 1923, it continued to produce its own GER magazine until the end of 1926. Our GER Magazine DVDs include the issues up to that date.

The Magazines here cover the period from the start of 1927 until the LNER became part of British Railways at the end of 1947. Each year made up a volume, so there are 21 volumes in all.

Many of the articles were of contemporary railway interest or described parts of the region which the LNER served. For example the 1935 volume included articles about Felixstowe & the Felix Hotel, the Yorkshire Pullman, C.W.S Developments at Pelaw near Newcastle, and Repairing Locomotives in Scotland. All were fully illustrated with photographs.

Like any staff magazine it also carried news of its employees and what they were doing. There were reports from the social and sporting clubs and staff outings, for instance, as well as notes on presentations, retirements and deaths. During the Second World War news of staff in the forces (and in the home guard) also featured.

lne1lne2lne3

Individual copies of the magazine or bound annual volumes occasionally become available via second hand outlets, but because of their scarcity and interest they fetch a high price.

What the Great Eastern Railway Society has done

LNER DVD

We have spent money raised from our Sales activities by commissioning a professional scan of all 21 volumes – over 11,000 pages in all. This has converted them into Acrobat files, and in addition the use of optical character recognition software has for the first time ever made them all word-searchable.

How this exercise can benefit you

If your interest is in the LNER itself, in railway or social history generally, or in local history relating to the region, you may wish to purchase the files of the 21 volumes. These are available as a professionally copied double DVD at what we hope is an affordable price. For GER Society members this is £10, for non-members £15 – still a tremendous bargain, surely? Both prices include P&P. You can order by post through the Traditional Sales List, or buy online now.

If you are researching your family history, your interest may be solely the information we have now made accessible rather than those 21 volumes themselves. To meet your needs far more economically, we are offering a search facility on your behalf – you will find the details on the genealogy page of this web site.

 

Sales

We have a vast selection of sales items you can buy on this website. This forms an important part of making information about the GER and related railways accessible to all. Products are available as digital PDFs, CD/DVDs and on paper.

Browse Shop

Journal and News

Membership of the Great Eastern Railway Society includes a subscription to the Great Eastern Journal and Great Eastern News, both published quarterly. They are both produced to a professional standard, rivalling the quality of commercial magazines.

Find out more

The Collection

One of the Society's major achievements is the establishment of its Historical Collection of Records. Together with other records at the NRM, much of the company's history is available to all.

Browse the Collections
Locomotives

Locomotives

The GER is remembered for its long-lived locomotives. The Claud Hamilton 4-4-0s and the '1500' 4-6-0s were the epitomy of Pre-Grouping elegance. Many smaller locomotives were well matched to the traffic demands varying from mainline freight through to lightly-built cross-country routes and branches, including tramways and light railways.

Read more

Modelling

When the Society was founded, one of the priorities was to support those who model the GER. We continue to have a thriving modelling community who exchange information through our Forum. They have created a Showcase which contains many layouts of, or inspired by, the diverse railways of East Anglia and East London.

Find out more
This image for Image Layouts addon

E-Group and Forum

Members can interchange ideas and information with each other through our E-Mail list based on Groups.io (The E-Group) and our Forum hosted on this website which is popular with our modelling community.

Join us!
Official Facebook page

Official Facebook page

The Society has a Facebook group which is occasionally used for announcements.

View the page
X (formerly Twitter)

X (formerly Twitter)

We also have a page on X (Twitter) with postings of general interest to railway enthusiasts.

View the page
Great Eastern Railway Appreciation Group

Great Eastern Railway Appreciation Group

We also recommend this Facebook group for those interested in the GER.

View the page

Latest News