Railways in Britain were nationalised under the terms of the Transport Act 1947 which came into effect on 1 January 1948. The Railway Executive, a corporate body subordinate to the British Transport Commission, was created to manage and operate the railways. It divided them into six geographical regions, largely based on the areas served by the pre-nationalisation railway companies. Between 1948 and 1998 the creation of Scotland’s railway system was under a unified system of management, for the first time, as a complete administrative unit it its own right, but also as part of the nationalized system for the whole of the United Kingdom. Between 1948 and 1952 the Chief Regional Officer of the Scottish Region (ScR) was responsible to the Railway Executive for day to day operations in his region. After the Railway Executive was abolished in 1952, he reported to the British Transport Commission (BTC). In 1963, the BTC itself was abolished and replaced by British Railways Board (BRB). Between 1963 and 1968 the Scottish Region was a statutory board in accordance with the provisions of the Transport Act 1962, subordinate to and reporting to BRB. In 1958 James Ness became the General Manager of the Scottish Region, in 1967 Thomas Forbes Cameron was the Chief Regional Officer (CRO), in 1979 Chris Green was the Chief Operating Manager (COM) and then promoted to General Manager in 1984 and in 1986 J. Cornell became the General Manager of ScotRail (the General Manager is a senior postion to the CRO and the COM). It was the first region to adopt a two-tier management structure in 1966, eliminating the divisional level from most functions. In the two-tier system the area managers and area maintenance engineers report directly to senior managers at Regional headquarters in Glasgow. The Region differentiated from the other five regions by the variety of shipping, hosting five of the highest railway summits, two underground railways with steam power and not one mile of the British Rail ScR was electrified. Railway-owned ships in Scotland became the responsibility of the Railway Executive. The ScR's main routes were Burnmouth and north on the East Coast Main Line, Caledonian, Callander & Oban Lines, Inverness to Wick and the Waverley line. With 3,625 miles of route, the new ScR was almost the same size as the Western Region representing 19% of total British Rail (BR) mileage. The two main constituents of the BR ScR were the former London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) and London North Eastern Railway (LNER) networks north of the Border. The ScR had boundaries with the North Eastern Region near Berwick-upon-Tweed and the London Midland Region near Gretna. Following the Modernisation plan in 1955, the suburban Glasgow lines were electrified in 1956 and electric power was extended to reach Glasgow in 1974 expanding the Glasgow suburban network. Three years after the programme of electrification, with poor investment, the region had to reintroduce steam on the Glasgow to Aberdeen services. During the mid 1960s many routes were closed under the "Beeching Axe", plus some after the resignation of Dr Richard Beeching - most notoriously the Waverley Line from Edinburgh to Carlisle. Lines proposed for closure in the Beeching Report, but which escaped the axe and remain open to this day are Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh, Wick and Thurso and Ayr to Stranraer. In 1974 cross-border electric Inter-City services from Glasgow Central to London Euston commenced, with the completion of the West Coast Main Line electrification project. In 1979 the Argyle Line project saw the reopening and electrification of the railway line through Glasgow Central Low Level station. The Glasgow Central to Ayr line was electrified in 1986. The one closure of this period was the Kilmacolm line in 1983. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s and was wound-up at the end of 1992, this was caused by BR reorganising the regional structure to be abolished and replaced with business-led sectors. In 1992 Railtrack acquired the track. This process, known as ‘sectorisation’, led to far greater customer focus, this was cut short in 1994 when privatisation caused BR to split up. This sectorisation meant that the last remaining territorial unit from the regional system was ‘ScotRail’ which was a blend of sector and regional management, with a single director covering a dual role. The ScotRail brand was created by BR ScR manager Chris Green in 1983 to provide a distinctive brand for the BR network in Scotland. The brand was adopted by National Express when it took over the franchise from British Railways during privatisation in 1997. With the privatisation of BR the railway infrastructure of the ScR came under the Scotland Zone of Railtrack. Passenger services within Scotland were franchised to National Express, under the name "ScotRail Railways", although it was still referred to as ScotRail, the name that the BRB used in its later years of operation.

Railways in Britain were nationalised under the terms of the Transport Act 1947 which came into effect on 1 January 1948. The Railway Executive, a corporate body subordinate to the British Transport Commission, was created to manage and operate the railways. It divided them into six geographical regions, largely based on the areas served by the pre-nationalisation railway companies. London Midland Region (LMR) was one of those territories. It comprised the railway operations in England and Wales of the former London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company (LMS) with the exception of the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway which was placed in Eastern Region and lines in central and south Wales which passed to Western Region. Subsequently, the area of operations was adjusted by the transfer of “penetrating lines” between regions Between 1948 and 1952 the regional manager was responsible to the Railway Executive for day to day operations in his region. After the Railway Executive was abolished in 1952, he reported to the British Transport Commission (BTC). In 1963, BTC itself was abolished and replaced by British Railways Board (BRB). Between 1963 and 1968 LMR was a statutory board in accordance with the provisions of the Transport Act 1962, subordinate to and reporting to BRB. It ceased to be a statutory board in 1968, following reorganisation of the railways’ business along sectoral or functional lines. The name survived until 1992 when the railways were privatised. There were two principal routes in the region. The first was the former Midland mainline which had several components: London St Pancras to Sheffield via Leicester and Nottingham, Rugby through Derby to West Yorkshire and Leeds and continuing over the Settle-Carlisle route, Derby to Manchester, and Birmingham to Derby. The other was the West Coast Mainline (WCML) from Euston to Carlisle, via Birmingham and Manchester with its branch to Liverpool. There was one major “penetrating line”, the former Great Central London Extension from Annesley in Nottinghamshire to London Marylebone, via Leicester, and Rugby. Originally in Eastern Region, this line was transferred to London Midland Region in 1958. The WCML which formed part of the major route from London to Scotland was electrified in stages between 1959 and 1974. Only the southern end of the Midland Mainline from Bedford to London Moorgate was electrified during the period that London Midland Region existed. Like other regions London Midland experienced withdrawal of services and closures, especially following the Beeching report. The most notable casualty was the Great Central line, which, because it largely duplicated the Midland Main Line from Nottingham to London, was closed almost in its entirety. The line through the Derbyshire Dales between Matlock and Buxton was also closed thus severing the route from St Pancras to Manchester. Many branch lines and industrial lines were also closed

“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.

Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Company Ltd (Metrovicks) built an armament factory on Attercliffe Common in Sheffield, a 9-acre site for the manufacture of traction motors in 1921. In 1923 it was made into a self-contained traction motor factory with its own engineering department and the manufacture of complete locomotives and electric delivery vehicles. Metrovicks merged with British Thomson-Houston Co Ltd (BTH) in 1928 to form the holding company Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) still trading under each individual company’s name. In 1931, Metrovicks bought the whole Attercliffe Common Works apart from the stamp shop which made 4 1/2 acres of single-storey building available for traction work. During the Second World War the Works suffered bomb damage and became the major supplier of dc generator/ high frequency alternator sets for aircraft and a ‘shadow’ factory was set up at Bamford. Together, 140000 sets were produced with military work continued at the factory up to the 1970’s. In 1956 Attercliffe Works became the feeder department for the new AEI factory on Greenland Road also located in Sheffield for the manufacture of smaller type of machines, traction gears. AEI created a subsidiary called AEI Traction Ltd in 1959, which took over the Attercliffe Common works to manufacture traction motors, generators, gears and other machines such as motor-generator sets used for converting the high traction voltage to a safer voltage suitable for train lighting, heating, battery-charging and for the control equipment on locomotives and suburban electric trains. The General Electric Company Ltd (GEC) took over AEI in 1967 and Attercliffe Works became owned by a subsidiary of GEC, GEC Traction Ltd who designed and manufactured a full range of traction machines and control equipment for electric vehicles. All British Railways a/c electric loco motors and motor coach d/c motor orders for Hong Kong and Korea up to the mid-seventies were built at the Works. The Attercliffe Common works closed in 1985 when GEC and the French Alsthom group merged in 1989, and the design and manufacture of motors and inductors moved to GEC Preston works and gears moved to GEC Rugby works.