During the First World War the government took control of the railways to co-ordinate the war effort. After the war it was decided that the railway companies could not competitively return to their prior state, and so the 1921 Railways Act merged the 120 existing railway companies into four companies, which became known as the ‘Big Four’’. Founded in 1923, the Southern Railway took over the railways of South-East England and came to consist of five major railway companies and 14 small ones. The Southern Railway had works at Ashford, Brighton, Lancing and Eastleigh. The first chairman of the Southern Railway was Brigadier-General Sir Hugh Drummond. Initially the general managers of the three main constituent companies, namely the London & South Western Railway (LSWR), London, Brighton & South Coast Railway (LBSCR) and South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR) worked together to lead the Southern Railway during its first year of operation. From 1 January 1924 it was decided that railway would be led by one general manager and one chief mechanical engineer. The first holders of these posts were Sir Herbert Ashcombe Walker, formerly manager of the LSWR and Richard Maunsell previously the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the SECR. Walker was succeeded by Gilbert Szlumper, then Sir Eustace Missenden and the last general manager prior to nationalisation was Sir John Elliott. The Southern Railway's operating structure was based on geographical divisions, initially these were London (East), London (West), Eastern (Dover) Southern (Brighton), Central (Southampton), and Western (Exeter). The Southern Railway was the smallest of the Big Four, and it relied primarily on passenger traffic. The Southern Railway’s predecessors had begun the process of electrification around suburban London where there was a high volume of passenger traffic. This programme was continued by the Southern Railway and was approved by its first AGM in March 1924. A rolling programme of electrification continued throughout Southern Railway’s operation, and on 30 December 1932 the newly electrified line to Brighton was opened. Despite Southern Railway’s increasing use of electric trains, steam locomotives continued to be used, especially for goods trains, until the nationalisation of the railways in 1948. As well as operating rail traffic, the Southern Railway owned and operated docks and harbours along the South Coast, the most important of which was Southampton Docks. It also ran passenger steamers across the English Channel to France. The Southern Railway operated air services to the Channel Islands from a number of airfields in the South-East and had stations at these airfields to allow passengers to transfer. The 1947 Transport Act nationalised the railways, and the Southern Railway came to be run by the Railway Executive as part of the new British Transport Commission. The Southern Railway’s rail operations were taken over by the Southern Region of British Railways.

The Transport Act 1947 nationalised virtually all British transport, including the railways, waterways, and road haulage. These were transferred to a newly-created operating body, the British Transport Commission (BTC). The British Transport Commission began operations on 1st January 1948, under Chairman Sir (later Lord) Cyril Hurcomb. At this time, the British Transport Commission acquired the “Big Four” grouped railways, with virtually all minor railways as well, together with the London Passenger Transport Board. This automatically transferred the assets of the rail companies to BTC, including ships, ports, hotels, and investments in bus, coach, and haulage companies. Two bus companies, Tilling and Scottish Motor Traction, were soon added, as well as long-distance road hauliers. The Transport Act charged the British Transport Commission with the task of charged with “integrating” various forms of transport into single public service. The British Transport Commission did not directly operate transport services. Operations were delegated to five separately appointed executives: Docks and Inland Waterways, Hotels, London Transport, Road Transport, and Railways. The Railways Executive operated under the name British Railways. In 1949, the Road Transport Executive was divided into two separate executives: Road Haulage and Road Passenger. The Commission exercised financial control over these Executives, and managed them through schemes of delegation. The Commission attempted to fulfil its statutory duty to “integrate” public transport by introducing Area Schemes. These were designed to establish regional monopolies for road passenger transport, ports, and harbours. “Integration” was also to be promoted through Charges Schemes, in which the true costs of different modes of transport were to be reflected in the charges. This was designed to attract traffic to the most economic and efficient mode of transport. The structure of Executives was dramatically altered by the Transport Act 1953, which abolished all Executives, with the exception of London Transport. Responsibility for the operation and maintenance of transport systems was delegated to the chief regional managers. The railways were reorganised into a system of area boards for each of its six regions. In September 1953, Sir Brian Robertson became Chairman. Disposal of the haulage fleet also began at this time, but a lack of buyers made this difficult. Rising costs, industrial action and competition from road traffic meant that the British Transport Commission was in financial trouble by 1955. It sought relief from this by publishing The Modernisation and Re-equipment of British Railways, a plan which proposed an investment in the railways of £1,240m over fifteen years. The main features of this plan were the replacement of steam with electric and diesel traction, the electrification of principle routes, and the introduction of new coaching stock. Despite the modernisation plan, the financial position of the British Transport Commission worsened. Two government reviews, in 1956 and 1959, concluded that the Commission was unwieldy and had an insufficiently commercial outlook. Sir Brian Robertson retired in May 1961, and was replaced by Dr Richard Beeching. The BTC was abolished by the Transport Act 1962. It was replaced with five new authorities that were answerable to the Minister of Transport: the British Railways Board, the British Transport Docks Board, the British Waterways Board, the London Transport Board, and the Transport Holding Company. Dr Beeching became chair of the British Railways Board.

The British Railways Board was an independent statutory corporation responsible for running the British railway network from 1963. It was established by the Transport Act 1962, which abolished the British Transport Commission and divided its undertakings between five newly-created bodies: the British Railways Board, the British Waterways Board, the British Transport Docks Board, the London Transport Board, and a Transport Holding Company. The British Railways Board was responsible for running the railway network, as well as managing government-owned railway hotels. Members of the British Railways Board were also appointed by the Minister for Transport. The first Chair of the British Railways Board was Dr Richard Beeching. The British Railways Board operated through regional boards, which were responsible for regional sections of the railway network. These regions were Southern, Western, London Midland, London and North Eastern, Eastern, and Scottish. Members of these regional boards were appointed by the British Railways Board, in consultation with the Minister for Transport. The British Railways Board also operated a series of committees to manage every aspect of railway control, including committees for finance, technical, works and property. These committees were frequently reorganised throughout the life of the British Railways Board, under both different Chairs of the Board and different governments. Several changes occurred during the 1960s. The Board had two new Chairs; Stanley Raymond, who replaced Richard Beeching in 1965, and his successor Henry Johnson, who became Chair in 1967. In 1968, the Transport Act transferred the control of the Sundries and Freightliner divisions from the British Railways Board to National Carriers Ltd and Freightliners Ltd. The Board retained a forty-nine per cent stake in Freightliners Ltd. During the 1970s, the British Railways Board created several subsidiary companies which were to manage some of its undertakings. These included British Transport Hotels Ltd, British Rail Engineering Ltd, and British Rail Hovercraft Ltd. Many of these subsidiary companies were sold under the Conservative governments of the 1980s. There were also two new Chairs during this time. Richard Marsh replaced Henry Johnson in 1971, and Peter Parker became chair in 1976. The privatisation of the British rail network during the 1990s radically changed the role of the British Railways Board. The Transport Act 1993 established Railtrack, a publicly-owned company. The Act transferred the ownership of track and railway infrastructure from the British Railways Board to Railtrack, in addition to the control of signals. Railtrack also replaced the British Railways Board as the body responsible for track investment and maintenance. The British Railways Board remained in existence after these changes, but only performed residual functions relating to pensions, liabilities, and non-operational railway land. The Board also continued to operate the British Transport Police service. The British Railways Board was abolished by the Transport Act 2000, which transferred the remaining functions of the Board to the newly-created Strategic Rail Authority.

In 1937 Robert Stephenson & Co. Ltd purchased the locomotive department of R & W Hawthorn Leslie & Co. Ltd. They became Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns Ltd. The policy was to concentrate the building of main line locomotives at Robert Stephenson’s Darlington works and industrial locomotives at Forth Banks. In 1944 Vulcan Foundry acquired Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns Ltd, ending Hawthorns' 137 year connection with Forth Banks. In 1955 Vulcan Foundry became full members of the English Electric group of companies, which became part of the GEC group of companies in 1968.

In 1883 Dick Kerr & Co Ltd was formed with John Kerr to take on the railway and tramway related activities built up by W B Dick & Co Ltd in Kilmarnock (Britannia Works). The company built steam locomotives to haul tramcars; and in 1887 constructed the first section of the cable tramway system in Edinburgh. In 1897, Dick, Kerr acquired disused premises, later known as East Works, in Preston for the manufacture of electric tramcars and rolling stock under the control of a subsidiary company, the Electric Railway and Tramway Carriage Works Limited (ER&TCW), later known as the United Electric Car Company Limited. The works developed a world market for electric urban tramway systems; however drive machinery for the vehicles had to be imported from the USA. The company provided complete electric coaches for the Waterloo & City Railway in 1899, and in 1904 equipped the first main line in Great Britain to be electrified between Liverpool and Southport. In 1900, the new works known as West Works were built by the English Electric Manufacturing company on the opposite side of Strand Road to the ER&TCW works, the rear boundary of the site being along the line of the original bank of the river Ribble. The factory was built for the manufacture of electric traction equipments, power station equipments and general engineering. In 1902, these works at Preston were taken over by Dick, Kerr & Co Limited. In 1917 the company acquired Preston based tram maker United Electric Car Company creating Britain's largest tram factory, and also a controlling interest in Willans and Robinson, Rugby. In 1918, Dick, Kerr and Co Ltd became one of the founding companies of the English Electric Co Ltd.

The firm began as a partnership between Peter Willans and Mark Robinson in 1880 at Thames Ditton in Surrey, manufacturing high-speed steam engines using Willans’ design for river launches. Willans invented the central-valve steam engine that was crucial to the firm’s initial success but he died in 1892 after an accident, so didn’t see the company expansion that led to the move to Rugby in 1897. By the time of Willans’ death the company engines were driving almost 70% of the turbines generating Britain’s overall electricity output and demand was coming in from overseas. Despite this success and pioneering developments in steam electric locomotives, motorcar parts production, boiler manufacture and steam turbines, the firm struggled with controlling its finances. This led to it being taken over by Dick, Kerr and Company Ltd in 1917, which then became part of English Electric a year later. This saw the name of the site changed to the Willans Works. English Electric came under the ownership of GEC in 1968, which also ran British Thomson-Houston, another power generation company that was also in Rugby. The Willans site eventually became part of the thermal power division for Alstom, but this activity has now been transferred to France.

Phoenix Dynamo Manufacturing Company (an unincorporated firm or partnership) of Hubert Street, Leeds Road was active by 1895 manufacturing arc lamps and electrical instruments. By 1900 the company works were manufacturing small motors and dynamos for driving machinery and providing lighting specifically for the textile industry. Large motors, turbines, turbo-generators etc. were manufactured for orders from the Admiralty and War Office. In February 1903 Phoenix Dynamo purchased the whole of the works, business and patent rights of Bradford's Rosling & Fynn Limited (in liquidation) and announced that after some extensions to the buildings were complete those operations would be consolidated at Thornbury. In June 1903 it was announced that a limited liability company had been incorporated, Phoenix Dynamo Manufacturing Company Limited, with a capital of £60,000 to acquire the business of electrical engineers and contractors carried on by the firm known as Phoenix Dynamo Manufacturing Company at Thornbury Works Bradford. During the First World War, Phoenix Dynamo contracted to the Admiralty to build Short seaplanes. The company produced millions of shells, a large quantity of machine tools, sea planes and flying boats. After the Armistice in November 1918 Phoenix Dynamo merged with four other businesses to form the English Electric Company and Phoenix Dynamo became English Electric's centre for small/ medium electric motor and generator design.

The business traces its origins back to 1865, following the split with the Berlin firm of Siemens and Haslske. It became a limited company in 1880. It was a manufacturer of electrical and telegraph cables, electrical generators, and batteries. It sold its dynamo works at Stafford to English Electric in 1924

Marconi Instruments Limited was a British manufacturer of electronic test and measurement equipment, based in St Albans and Stevenage, England. The company was formed following the Marconi Company buy-out of Marconi-Ecko Instruments in 1941 and was sold to IFR Systems Inc. in 1998. The company was named after Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937), a pioneer in radio and telegraphy who founded the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company (later the Marconi Company) in 1897.

The Vulcan Foundry was originally opened in 1830 at Newton-le-Willows, as Charles Tayleur and Company. It initially produced girders for bridges, switches and crossings, and other ironwork following the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Robert Stephenson became a partner in 1832, and in the same year, the first locomotives ‘Tayleur’ and ‘Stephenson’ were delivered to the North Union Railway. By 1840 locomotives had been delivered to five European countries and to North America. The company became The Vulcan Foundry Company in 1847 and acquired limited liability in 1864. From the beginning of 1898, the name changed again to The Vulcan Foundry Limited, dropping the word 'company.' Vulcan locomotives were exported all over the world, with the first locomotives for Russia and Japan supplied in 1837 and 1871 respectively and a long association with India began in 1852. First World War production included shells, gun mountings and mine sweeping equipment. The first non-steam locomotive, an electric, was produced for India in 1929. The first diesel locomotive design commenced in 1932/33 and an agreement was reached with A/S Frichs in Denmark. The English Electric 6K engine was used from this time. The “Waltzing Matilda” tank was developed in 1938 and produced in large numbers and over five hundred ‘Austerity’ steam locomotives were produced for the War Department. Other wartime production included gun mountings and torpedo parts. In 1944 Vulcan acquired the locomotive business, Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns Ltd, based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. In 1946 the company began working with the English Electric Company producing diesel and electric locomotives and became part of the English Electric Group in 1955. All locomotive building from Preston was transferred to Vulcan Foundry and Robert Stephenson’s in Darlington. Under the new ownership, the works produced many locomotives for both domestic and foreign railways, notably the Deltic. The mid-sixties saw the ‘RK’/’V’ engine production at Preston moved to Vulcan and Ruston & Hornsby Ltd merged with English Electric Diesels in 1966. After the General Electric Company plc (GEC) takeover in 1968 the Ruston name was used for some time inside what became GEC Diesels Ltd in 1975. Engine production and development continued for locomotive, industrial and marine applications until after the GEC-Alsthom merger in 1989. The company took over Mirlees Engines, Stockport in 1997 and was renamed Alstom Engines Ltd.

Elliott-Automation Limited was initially formed as Elliottronic Limited on 10th October 1950 as a subsidiary of Elliott Brothers (London). In this form it acted as a method of exploiting the newly developed printed circuit technology. This came to an end in 1957 when its name was changed, and it was liquidated as a subsidiary before being reformed as a holding company. Such a change was undertaken in order to facilitate the merger of Elliott Brothers and Associated Automation. In this role the newly renamed Elliott Automation would acquire the shares of these two companies in exchange for its own. This deal was accepted in early October 1957 and created the largest automation and instrument organisation in Europe at the time with both Elliott Brothers and Associated Automation becoming subsidiaries. The board of the new company was headed by Rudolph De Trafford with Loan Bagrit as deputy and managing director. In November 1957 the company expanded with the acquisition of Rotameter Manufacturing, which produced flowmeters and density meters. By the 2nd May 1959 it had also sold Associated Insulation Products to Associated Electrical Industries. In January 1959 Elliott Automation again expanded with the establishment of Elliott Nucleonics as a new subsidiary. This took over responsibility for all activities in the nuclear field, including controls and instruments for reactors and power stations, from Elliott Brothers (London). 1959 also saw the establishment of the Swartwout Company as another part of the group which was formed to produced electronic control systems under a licence from their American producer. February 1960 saw the purchase of Isotope Development (Beenham) Limited from Isotope Developments Limited, which would later change its name to Nucleonic Investments Limited, and the acquisition of Rheostatic, a manufacturer of thermostats and heat control equipment. Further acquisitions would follow with Firth Cleveland Instruments, which became Elliott (Treforest), in 1961; Londex in 1962 and Pevl Controls and Baldwin Instruments in 1963. In 1964 the group also acquired a controlling interest in A.E. Dean & Co. This expansion lead to the creation of numerous divisions and subsidiaries including Mechanical Automation, Elliott Traffic Automation and Elliott Marine Automation. In addition to the expansion being undertaken in the United Kingdom there was also similar activity happening in continental Europe. In 1962 a new company was formed under the name Elliott Automation Continental S.A. under the chairmanship of Sir Leon Bagrit. This acted as the European subsidiary of the wider Elliott Automation Group and would go on to acquire a number of companies in its own right. In April 1967 a further company was formed in Europe, Elliott Automation/Iberica S.A. in order to undertake a contract to install an electronic traffic control system in Madrid. By May 1965 the Elliott Automation group had grown to include 16 companies spread across 26 site both in Britain and abroad. Under the overall management of Elliott Automation Limited, the parent company which was responsible for group wide services, there was Elliott Process Automation Ltd, Elliott Flight Automation Ltd, Elliott Space and Weapon Automation Ltd, Elliott-Automation Radar Systems Ltd, Elliott-Automation Nucleonics Ltd, Elliott Medical Automation Ltd, A.E.E Dean & Co (X-Ray Apparatus) Ltd, Elliott Brothers (London) Ltd, Londex Ltd, E-A Control Valves Ltd, Elliott-Automation Computers Ltd, Elliott Mechanical Automation Ltd, Associated Automation Ltd, Satchwell Controls Ltd, Elliott-Automation (Overseas) Ltd and Elliott-Automation Continental S.A., which was only partly owned by the group. Each of these companies was made of a number of division whilst some also held ownership of part or all of other companies in their own right. By June 1967 the Elliott Automation group was struggling to compete with the larger American computer firms and was still suffering from the impacts of the cancellation of the TSR2 project. As a result, the Industrial Reorganisation Corporation offer a £15 million loan in order to bring about the merger of the company with English Electric, which would create the largest electronics and computer company in Europe, with projected sales of £150 million. This was the first large scale merger facilitated by the IRC and, although there was some concern about it at the time, it was seen as a good deal by the Elliott chairman, Sir Leon Bagrit. The deal itself was accepted in August 1967 and with it Elliott Automation became a subsidiary of the English Electric group, with Bagrit becoming a deputy chairman. This situation would only continue until 1968 when the General Electric Company bought English Electric, which became a GEC subsidiary. Elliott Automation remained part of EE but would change its name on 1st December 1970 to GEC-Elliott Automation, reflecting its new overall owner. In this form it would continue to act as a parent company of some of GEC electronics manufacturing concerns until 1998, although the name would continue to be use for a investment holding company within the group until 2001.

Hornbuckle began his career serving an apprenticeship in the general engineering works of R. Hornsby and Sons, Grantham. Here he worked on the Hornsby-Akroyd oil engine. Between 1901-1903 he studied mechanical and electrical engineering at University College, Nottingham and gained the City and Guilds qualification in engineering from the London Institute. From 1903 to 1911 he worked in the electrical and general engineering section of the locomotive department of Midland Railway, Derby. Here he was involved in designing electric motors, designing a new power station to supply power to the locomotive and carriage and wagon workshops. He was also involved in experimenting to test the possibilities of single phase traction for mainline electrification. In connection with this he toured Switzerland, Germany and Holland to inspect electric railways in operation. During this period he was an external student of the University of London, and in 1911 was awarded a BSc in engineering. From 1911-1927 Hornbuckle worked in the works manager’s office of the locomotive department of Midland Railway, Derby. He supervised all general and electrical engineering work carried out on any part of the Midland Railway by staff attached to the locomotive works. Between 1911 and 1923 he also acted as liaison officer to the goods department. During World War One his responsibilities also covered the provision and installation of new machine tools of all descriptions and the improvement of production methods, and he was also involved in the manufacture of munitions, for which he was awarded an MBE in 1920. In 1919 he joined the Institution of Civil Engineers. In 1923 he served on various committees for coordinating works practices and methods on the amalgamation of the railways. As part of this work he investigated and made recommendations for the more efficient operation of the railways’ fleet of ships. In 1927 he became the technical assistant to the carriage and wagons superintendent at the carriage and wagon department of the London, Midland and Scotland Railway (LMS) at Derby. His principal duties were the research and development in connection with rolling stock and the reorganization of factories. Between 1931 and 1939 Hornbuckle was the chief technical assistant to the chief mechanical engineer at LMS in Euston. On his recommendations experimental work was carried out on the development of Diesel traction. This involved investigations and experiments with both mechanical and electrical diesel shunting engines, including models made by Armstrong-Whitworth and the English Electric Co. The main objective of the investigation was to reduce costs by introducing one-man operation of shunting engines. At the same time he experimented with diesel passenger units, especially the three-car diesel train. During this period he was a member of the electrification sub-committee and took an active part in the detailed investigation of the effects of electrifying the LMS mainlines between Euston-Carlisle and St Pancras-Leeds. In 1932 he toured Austria with General Mance to investigate the extent to which the Austrian State Railways had been rehabilitated as the result of a loan granted by the League of Nations. In 1934 he became a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Between 1937-8 he was the president of the Diesel Engineers and Users Association. He retired from the railway service in 1939. During World War Two he was the inspecting officer under the chief inspector of armaments, working at ROF Birtley. He gained experience in road and rail transport that clarified his ideas regarding the necessity for improvements in rail freight vehicles. From 1944-1948 Hornbuckle further developed his ideas on diesel traction and improved types of freight vehicle. Much of this work was carried out as consultancy for manufacturers of diesel engines, locomotives and railcars. From 1948-1955 he carried out advisory work for the government of New South Wales, this involved touring countries around Europe, especially Belgium, Austria and Germany where he placed contracts and arranged shipment for steam, electric and diesel electric locomotives and carriages and wagons. Hornbuckle died on 1st February 1958.