Add the Col. Stephens lines such as
Kent & East Sussex light railway
East Kent light railway
Rye and Camber tramway
Shropshire & Montgomery light railway
West Sussex light railway
He was also involved with other lines mentioned already such as the Ffestiniog
given that the adjacent Mersey Railway from Liverpool to Birkenhead,
Add the Col. Stephens lines such as
Kent & East Sussex light railway
East Kent light railway
Rye and Camber tramway
Shropshire & Montgomery light railway
West Sussex light railway
He was also involved with other lines mentioned already such as the Ffestiniog
If I have things rightly: Stephens's standard-gauge light railways remained independent at Grouping; but Kent & East Sussex and East Kent were nationalised in 1948 -- Shropshire & Montgomeryshire, taken over by the Army early in World War II, remained active in Army use until abandoned in 1960; West Sussex had been abandoned in 1935. (His other significant s/g line, the Weston, Clevedon & Portishead, was abandoned in 1940.)I seem to remember reading that the K&ESR wasn't included in the grouping, however it was included in the nationalisation.
Presumably the Calstock branch as well since Gunnislake seems to have made it into the national network.
Add the Col. Stephens lines such as
Kent & East Sussex light railway
East Kent light railway
Rye and Camber tramway
Shropshire & Montgomery light railway
West Sussex light railway
He was also involved with other lines mentioned already such as the Ffestiniog
In Northern Ireland, the Northern Counties Committee had been owned by LMSR, and would have passed to the Railway Executive in 1948, but never became part of BR (although a few of their Class WT 2-6-4T were built by BR at Derby) .
Regarding tramways, the Swansea & Mumbles Railway was operated by very large tramcars and remained in private hands until closure in 1960.
My first visit to the area was in summer 1960 - I was gutted to realise I'd missed going on this line by just a few weeks.
Regarding other non-municipal systems, was Gateshead and District not company owned? I'm also unsure about the Grimsby to Immingham, although maybe it was a joint municipal undertaking.
I believe that the Corris Line or the Welshpool & Llanfair had by , then, been absorbed by the GWR so would have been nationalised along with all that company's other assets.
They were - see previous post a few days ago. The Festiniog had ceased operating in 1946.
That wouldn't necessarily have prevented it being nationalised though. (And in fact, I think a portion at the Blaenau Ffestiniog end was still in use even at that time.)
I seem to remember that the line's owners applied for an abandonment order which was refused and it might have been the legal complications surrounding that, rather the fact that it was largely disused, that prevented it from becoming part of BR.
The Talyllyn being a case in point - wasn't it effectively under the same ownership as the slate quarry that it served - so separating it from that ownership in order to nationalise it could have been tricky from a legal point of view.
The Talyllyn actually passed from private ownership to the preservation society in 1951.
There's a suggestion it escaped nationalisation in 1948 'as officialdom thought it too run-down, and the level of traffic too low, to be worth taking over.'
I wonder what factor the ownership structure of the line concerned determined whether or not it was nationalised in 1948?
The Talyllyn being a case in point - wasn't it effectively under the same ownership as the slate quarry that it served - so separating it from that ownership in order to nationalise it could have been tricky from a legal point of view.
I believe that the legal ownership of the Ffestiniog was also very tangled, which is probably the main reason that it escaped becoming part of BR in 1947.
If I recall correctly the Talyllyn Railway existed in two legal entities Tywyn to Abergynolwyn and Abergynolwyn to Bryneglwys Quarry even though under common ownership. Separating should not have proved that difficult if there had been a will to do so.
I wonder what factor the ownership structure of the line concerned determined whether or not it was nationalised in 1948?
The Talyllyn being a case in point - wasn't it effectively under the same ownership as the slate quarry that it served - so separating it from that ownership in order to nationalise it could have been tricky from a legal point of view.