“British Railways” is the expression commonly used to describe the business run by the following legal entities: • Railway Executive (1948 – 1952) • British Transport Commission (1952 – 1963) • British Railways Board (1963 – 1993) Railways were nationalised on 1st January 1948 when the assets of the railways in Great Britain were vested in the British Transport Commission (BTC), a state-owned corporation created by the Transport Act 1947. Between 1948 and 1952 the business of operating the railways was carried on by the Railway Executive, a state-owned corporation, subsidiary to BTC. The Railway Executive was abolished in 1952 and BTC took over direct responsibility for the railways. Before 1948 there was no brand that was identified with the whole of the railways of Great Britain, only the separate brands of the Group companies, Southern, Great Western, London, Midland and Scottish and London and North Eastern, and London Transport. The railways were run under the corporate identity “British Railways” from 1948 by both the Railway Executive and BTC. The public manifestations of this were the words themselves on vehicles and premises, quasi-heraldic devices on locomotives (the so-called “cycling lion” followed by the “ferret and dartboard”) and the lozenge shape adopted (and clearly inspired by London Transport’s very similar logo) for station names. When the nationalised transport industry was reorganised in 1963, BTC was itself abolished and a new statutory corporation created to run the railways. This was British Railways Board (BRB). The name most closely associated with the national railway system had now become part of the name of the corporate entity, (i.e. the legal person, entitled as a matter of law to own property, to enter into contracts, and to sue (or be sued) in the courts and be prosecuted for breaches of the criminal law) which owned the assets and business of the railways of Great Britain. As a result of the corporate rebranding carried out in 1965 the business name, or brand name (as it was now expressly recognised to be), was shortened to “British Rail”. However, BRB retained the full “British Railways” in its title until its eventual abolition under the provisions of the Transport Act 2000.

Crossley Motors began in 1902 as the vehicle manufacturing arm of Crossley Brothers Ltd. It was originally based at the Crossley Brothers works in Pottery Lane, Openshaw, Manchester. In 1906, the company was registered as the limited company Crossley Motors Ltd and moved to a site in Crossley Street, Gorton, Manchester the following year. The company produced cars from 1904 to 1937 and commercial vehicles from 1912 to 1956. The commercial vehicle developed in 1912 became the basis of the highly successful Royal Flying Corps (RFC) tender in the First World War. In the 1920s commercial vehicle production centred on military types; buses were introduced in 1928. In 1914 expansion of Crossley Brothers at Pottery Lane led to the acquisition of a second site at Errwood Park, Heaton Chapel, Stockport. Construction of the Errwood Park Works began in 1915, but the site was quickly given over to war work. Crossley Motors Ltd managed the National Aircraft Factory No. 2 on the site from 1917. After the First World War, the site became the works for Willys Overland Crossley before being sold to Fairey Aviation in 1934. After the Second World War, the Errwood Park Works became the permanent home for Crossley Motors Ltd. Crossley Motors was sold to Associated Equipment Company in 1948, and production continued at the Stockport site until 1958. The company ceased trading in 1966.