Another Railway WI

My broad gauge WI sparked some conversation, so I'll throw out a couple of other railroad related WI's.
WI the 1923 railway grouping in the UK never happened? Please discuss effects of multiple rail systems in the UK.
WI the 1923 railway grouping occurs, but instead of the "Big Four" the UK gets
the "Big Six" or "Big Eight" etc. For example maybe all Scottish Railways are
grouped with the groupings becoming more regionalized. Please discuss.
 
Oh dear, modern (or semi-modern) British Rail history is not my forte. I'd actually like to know more about this 'railroad grouping' stuff. Is it like some regional-level version of Amtrak?
 
The British government grouped all standard gauge railways into four large systems beginning in 1923. This wasan intermediate step towards nationalization. The four systems were: Great Western, Southern, London & Northeastern and Londo, Midland & Scottish.
The US ICC proposed something similar but with 19 large systems ( I think!)
 
I doubt you're likely to see the Scottish railways grouped together in one company - IIRC, one of the reasons behind the Grouping was to improve services between London and Scotland by giving one company control over one of the two main routes - the LMS controlled the West Coast Main Line, the LNER the East Coast Main Line.

It would be interesting to see the two big companies in central England - the Midland and the Great Central - grouped together. It effectively creates another Main Line up the centre of England, which would change the dynamics of the inter-war Races to the North significantly. Whether it's feasible is a question probably best left to The Dean...
 
The first thing you have to do is actually 'ungroup' them in so far as the national boards set up during the war were, IIRC, still in broad control. That was in many ways the point of grouping, that the experience of the war had made a complete return to the pre-war situation impossible

I'm sure it could have been done differently, tho, and with more respect for the original companies, perhaps just merging the smaller ones into the larger ones, but still there was some duplication of effort which would be impossible to recreate in the post-war economic downturn - eg trying to spin off FOUR companies operating trains North out of London as profitable enterprises once again

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
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