Government agency created in 1887 with the task of managing all state-owned railway lines in Sweden.

The Great Eastern Railway was formed in 1862 by the amalgamation of the Eastern Counties Railway and four smaller companies, East Anglian, Newmarket, Eastern Union and Norfolk Railways. Its area of operations was East London and the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire. It operated mainline services to Ipswich, Norwich, Cambridge and Kings Lynn and branch line services throughout its area. Its principal London station was Liverpool Street, opened in 1874-5 as a replacement for the less conveniently situated Bishopsgate, and this was the centre of an intense suburban service noted for punctuality and the general slickness of its operation. It eventually participated in several joint railways in the London area. The GER developed holiday traffic to the resorts of Clacton, Southend, Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth. It served the port of Harwich, where its boat trains connected with its ferry services to the Continent. The main goods traffic from East Anglia was agricultural produce and fish from Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth. It gained access to the coalfields via the line from Doncaster to March jointly owned with the Great Northern Railway. Initially the GER had a near monopoly in East Anglia but this was challenged in Norfolk by the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway. The GER and the MGNJR eventually worked together in attempts to develop holiday traffic by jointly forming the Norfolk and Suffolk Joint Railway. The GER’s main works were at Stratford in East London where most of its locomotives were built. Its locomotive engineers included S W Johnson, William Adams, T W Worsdell, Robert Sinclair and James Holden. The GER became part of the London & North Eastern Railway under Grouping in 1923.

In 1883 the Victorian Railways Commissioners Act, 47 Vic., No.767, brought the staff of the Department of Railways, founded in 1856, under the jurisdiction of the Railway Commissioners, which became known as Victorian Railways. This act gave Victorian Railways the authority to construct, manage and maintain the railways of the state. In 1889 Newport replaced Williamstown as the location of the Victorian Railways workshop, and being the largest in Australia. The Victorian Railways Head Office was located in Spencer Street from 1893, and housed the branch’s design and administrative functions. In 1919, the electrification of the Melbourne suburban system commenced and was completed in 1930. In 1922 the Border Railway Act extended some of Victorian Railways lines into New South Wales. In 1961 a standard gauge line connecting to the New South Wales system was constructed to allow travel between Melbourne and Sydney for the first time. In 1973 the Railways Amendment Act passed the management to a Victorian Railways Board from the Victorian Railways Commissioners. In 1974 Victorian Railways became VicRail.

Irish railway company. It received royal assent to construct the railway line between Dublin and Drogheda on 13 August 1836. The railway officially opened on 25 May 1844. The company merged with the Dublin and Belfast Junction Railway in 1875 to form the Northern Railway of Ireland.

German railway company which began construction of railway lines in Northern Rhine in 1837.

The Midland Railway was formed in 1844 from the merger of the Midland Counties Railway, the North Midland Railway and Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway wit its headquarters in Derby. It expanded its operational territory by acquisition (e.g. railways in the Erewash valley, to Sheffield, serving the Leicestershire coalfields and the route from Birmingham to Bristol), and by construction of new railways and extensions to existing lines, including lines to Peterborough and Lincoln, towards Manchester and, most notably the Settle to Carlisle route. It expanded into the South Wales coalfields, and acquired railways not connected to its main routes: the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway and, in Ireland, the Belfast and Northern Counties Railways. Much of this activity was driven by competition with its geographical rivals, the London and North Western Railway to the west and the Great Northern Railway to the east. Where its interests were better served by co-operation, it tried to reach agreements with those same companies to share routes and traffic receipts. The most famous of these is the Euston Square Confederation, an agreement between the Midland Railway, the London and North Western Railway and the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway. Other such arrangements were the Cheshire Lines Committee and the right to run over the Great Northern Railway into King’s Cross station. The arrangements for through running and sharing of London termini with its competitors proved unsatisfactory. As a consequence the Midland Railway eventually built its own connection to London. The line ran from Bedford on the Midland’s existing Leicester to Hitchin line, to a terminus at St Pancras. It was opened in 1868. The Midland Railway was a partner in several joint railways e.g. the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway (with the London and South Western Railway), and the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway (the Great Northern Railway). The Midland Railway came under the control of the Railway Executive during the First World War and ended its independent existence in 1923 under Grouping when it was merged with, amongst other railway companies, its great rival the London and North Western Railway to form the London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company.

Swedish Railway, known to have been extant 1858.

Railway company known in Dutch as Nederlandsch-Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij, abbreviated to NIS. Also known as the Dutch East Indies Railway Company. Established in 1863, the company was in charge of rail transport in Java, Dutch East Indies.

The London and South Western Railway Company (LSWR) opened their first line in stages in from London to Southampton in 1838 under the name London and Southampton Railway Company. A year later the company name was changed to the LSWR. By the early 1900s, the line had been extended and ran from London to Plymouth via Yeovil, Exeter and Southampton. Some of the branch lines of the LSWR, further into Southern counties, were in direct competition with the Great Western Railway Company and others were worked in partnership with other railway companies such as the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. Nine Elms in London was the main depot of the LSWR, until Waterloo Station was opened by the company in 1848. Nine Elms became the goods depot for the London and South Western Railway Company and Waterloo became one of the biggest passenger stations in the country. The main LSWR engineering works was transferred from Nine Elms to Eastleigh by 1909. Sir Herbert Walker was General Manager of the London and South Western Railway Company from 1912, when he instituted the third-rail electrification programme, and was appointed General Manager of the Southern Railway Company in 1923, until his retirement in 1937. There were a number of notable engineers attached to the LSWR including John Viret Gooch, brother of Sir Daniel Gooch who was Locomotive Superintendent from 1841 to 1850. Dugald Drummond was the Chief Mechanical Engineer from 1895 to 1912; he facilitated moving the Works from Nine Elms to Eastleigh and their subsequent expansion and modernisation. Alfred Szlumper, appointed Chief Engineer in 1914 was key to the expansion and redesign of Waterloo Station, completed by 1922 The LSWR began electrification of its suburban lines from Waterloo in 1913. The first section was opened in 1915, and almost all the other planned routes were opened before the First World War curtailed the project. The London and South Western Railway Company was very prominent in handling all types of traffic during the First World War, due to it’s position serving London and the ports on the South Coast. The LSWR also had an ocean-going port at Southampton, which was a growing rival to Liverpool and Glasgow for transatlantic travel. The purchase of Southampton docks by the LSWR in 1892, alongside their expansion and modernisation, was organised by Sir Charles Scotter, the General Manager from 1885 to 1898. Scotter then became Chairmen of the Company from 1904 to 1910. The LSWR also ran steamer services from Southampton to the Channel Islands and France. In 1923, the LSWR was grouped into the Southern Railway Company by the Railways Act of 1921.

Dutch railway company