Railway Eras
The Era system can help the modeller quickly find a suitable model for the era or period in which their layout is based. Originally introduced by Bachmann, and based on a similar European system, it has been adopted by most manufacturers within the UK.
The eras are based around dates when there were significant changes to the railways in Britain, for example nationalisation, or major livery changes. Although this broad-brush approach does not account for some significant changes within each Era and does not reflect some overlaps between Eras, it does provide a quick reference to they way that the railways in Britain evolved over the years.
The following is a guide to each era and the symbols used throughout the website.
1804 - 1874: Pioneering
Starting at the very beginning of rail transport within Britain and ending in the mid-Victorian era. Within this era many companies were building new lines throughout the country, the number of railway companies reaching its peak by the mid-1870s.
1875 - 1922: Pre-Grouping
Considered by many as the ‘golden age of railways’, the late Victorian and Edwardian era had little competition and was the main form of transport for passenger and freight for medium to long distance journeys. The era was full of colourful liveries used to distinguish the different railway companies. The later part of era 2 covers the First World War and its immediate aftermath, when the whole network was effectively commandeered for the duration of the war and run by the government’s Railway Executive Committee.
1923 -1947: The Big Four (LNER, LMS, GWR and SR)
After the First World War, the government realised that many of the railway companies were unsustainable and many of them were loss making. As a result, the government passed the Railways Act, which grouped almost all of the existing companies into four regional companies, known as the ‘big four’:
London, Midland and Scottish Railway, LMS
Great Western Railway, GWR
London and North Eastern Railway, LNER
Southern Railway, SR
The act stabilised the railway industry however increasing competition from road transport resulted in passenger and freight traffic decreasing in this period and the era saw some uneconomic lines close.
1948 -1955: British Railways Early Crest
Under Clement Attlee, the newly elected Labour government, concluded that the best way forward for the railways was full nationalisation. As a result, British Railways came into existence on 1st January 1948, taking over the assets of the Big Four and slowly introducing the British Railways early Emblem
Road competition grew, and the legacy of wartime damage had inflicted huge costs on the network. Some experiments were made with diesel locomotives, but the government remained committed to steam as the primary motive power to benefit from the readily available, domestically produced, coal.
1956 - 1964: British Railways Late Crest
1956 started with a change to the British Railways livery, with the introduction of a new logo: the British Rail late Crest.
Due to the Modernisation Plan there was a major shift to diesel and electric locomotives in this era, with the last steam locomotive being built in 1960. It was also the era of the Beeching Report, resulting in dramatic reduction of the rail network.
1965 - 1970: British Rail Blue (Pre-TOPS)
With the introduction of British Rail, the Rail Blue and the Double Arrow logo, this era saw the exit of steam from the majority of the network. Described as ‘Pre-TOPS’, as even though the colour and logo had changed, locomotive numbers remained the same as in the preceding green and black eras.
1971 - 1981: British Rail Blue (TOPS)
With the introduction of TOPS (Total Operations Processing System), the numbers applied to the locomotives and rolling stock changed with the now familiar class numbers and wagon classifications and coach numbering. This era also saw the introduction of the High Speed Train and the associated ‘Inter City’ branding for long distance travel.
1982 -1993: British Rail Sectorisation
In the mid 1980s, British Rail started to split its services into specific sectors, each handling a different type of traffic.
Freight traffic was categorised as Rail Express for parcels traffic, Railfreight Distribution for general freight and Trainload Freight trains dedicated to a single type of load, e.g., coal. Passenger services were placed into geographical sectors, e.g., Network Southeast.
Each sector was given a distinctive logo and livery, quite a change from the uniform livery of the past era.
1994 - onwards: Post Privatisation
The government started to privatise the railways in 1994. The trains would be run by TOCs (Train Operating Companies) that were licensed on a franchise basis. The infrastructure was to be managed by by Railtrack, later to become Network Rail.
Hornby have split this era further, however these additional eras are not used on our website as other manufacturers have not adopted them. In additon the new eras overlap somewhat and this can cause confusion. The additonal eras, 10 and 11, are listed below for information:
Era 10: 2006 - 2017: Network Franchising
Following the Hatfield and Potters Bar rail crashes, it was realised that the rail network was aging and needed considerable investment. During this period tracks were re-laid, new signalling systems started to be installed, and new safety systems introduced.
New operators, and new liveries, came on the scene, with passenger franchises changing hands and freight operators being taken over and merged. Names such as DB Schenker and Greater Anglia arrived on the tracks.
Era 11: 2014 - onwards: Present Day
More open TOCs (Train Operating Companies) were introduced, these ran point to point services between specific cities, rather than having a geographic franchise.
