25-675: Railway Air Services ( RAS ) was a British airline formed in March 1934 by the Big Four railway companies (the GWR , LMS , LNER and SR ) and Imperial Airways . The airline was a domestic airline operating routes within the United Kingdom linking up with Imperial's services. The airline's main operating and maintenance base was at London's Croydon Airport pre- and post-war, and at Liverpool Airport during World War II . The most important RAS route flown
50-700: A single year, at Wycliffe College . In 1891 he followed his father into a career with the GWR, initially as an office boy and then for five years as an apprentice in the workshops. Between 1897 and 1900 he worked in the Drawing Office as a draughtsman , before becoming Inspector of Materials in 1900. In 1904, George Jackson Churchward appointed him as Assistant to the Divisional Locomotive Superintendent in London . In 1912 he returned to Swindon to become
75-577: A son and a daughter. William Stanier, with the backing of Sir Josiah Stamp , chairman of the company, reversed the small engine policy , which the LMS had inherited from the Midland Railway , with beneficial results. Locomotive designs introduced by Stanier include: Stanier's designs were a strong influence on the later British Railways standard classes of steam locomotives designed by R A Riddles , who adopted LMS design principles in preference to those of
100-968: The National Omnibus and Transport Company , soon afterwards absorbed by Tilling. The railways relinquished the majority stakes they had already acquired but also bought substantial minority shareholdings in other companies in the combine groups. Eventually there were investments in 33 bus and coach companies. Where there was a local monopoly of rail services the agreements were bilateral but where inter-penetrating lines were common, there were two railway companies with minority shareholdings, for example, Devon General and Thames Valley Traction (both GWR/SR), Crosville and Midland Red (both GWR/LMS), and Eastern Counties , Eastern National , East Midland Motor Services , Hebble Motor Services , Lincolnshire Road Car , Trent Motor Traction , West Yorkshire Road Car , Yorkshire Traction and Yorkshire Woollen District Transport (all LMS/LNER). The LMS and LNER also sat with
125-604: The 1980s and were finally abolished in the run-up to privatisation in 1992. William Stanier Sir William Arthur Stanier , FRS (27 May 1876 – 27 September 1965) was an English railway engineer, and was chief mechanical engineer of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway . Sir William Stanier was born in Swindon , where his father worked for the Great Western Railway (GWR) as William Dean 's Chief Clerk, and educated at Swindon High School and also, for
150-592: The Assistant Works Manager and in 1920 was promoted to the post of Works Manager. In late 1931, he was "headhunted" by Sir Josiah Stamp , chairman of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), to become the Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of that railway from 1 January 1932. He was charged with introducing modern and more powerful locomotive designs, using his knowledge gained with the GWR at Swindon. Stanier built many successful designs for
175-644: The Avro Ansons, which linked linking Croydon with Manchester Ringway and Belfast (Nutts Corner) Airport . In August 1946, the UK government formed the British European Airways Corporation (BEA) a state-owned airline. The airline was given a monopoly of scheduled air services within the United Kingdom and to continental Europe. From 1 August 1946 RAS operated all its services on behalf of BEA until it ceased operations on 31 January 1947 with BEA acquiring
200-625: The East Anglian coast. It was wholly incorporated into the LNER in 1936. The S&D connected Bath and Bournemouth, and wound its way through territory otherwise dominated by the GWR. The LMS was responsible for its locomotives and the Southern for the infrastructure. Initially, the S&;D had its own locomotives but these were absorbed into LMS stock in 1930. Further simplification of the railway map, long advocated,
225-669: The GWR and Southern. Thomas Cook & Son having come into Belgian ownership, its impounded shares were sold by the British Custodian of Enemy Property to the Big Four. The areas served by the Big Four formed the basis of the British Railways regions as follows: The regions — whose powers were greatly enhanced during the 1950s under the Area Railways Boards — ceased to be operational units following sectorisation during
250-522: The GWR, as chief mechanical engineer . The LNER never made a profit, a fact partly accounted for by having inherited the huge debts incurred by the Great Central Railway in building its extension to London. Although nominally in competition, the four companies worked together on projects of significance to the railway industry as a whole. During World War II , the railway companies' managements were united, effectively becoming one company, under
275-452: The LMS, particularly the "Black 5" mixed traffic 4-6-0 and the 8F 2-8-0 freight locomotive . His Princess Coronation Class 4-6-2 No.6220 Coronation set a new British record of 114 mph, beating the previous record set by a Gresley A4. During WWII, Stanier worked as a consultant for the Ministry of Supply, and retired in 1944. He was knighted on 9 February 1943 and elected a Fellow of
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#1732848432056300-567: The RAS aircraft, staff and routes. A memory does live on however. DH.89A Dragon Rapide G-ALXT is preserved by the Science Museum in RAS colour scheme and named 'Star of Scotia'. It is currently in storage at Wroughton. Big Four (British railway companies) The " Big Four " was a name used to describe the four largest railway companies in the United Kingdom in the period 1923–1947. The name
325-681: The Royal Society on his retirement, only the third locomotive engineer after Edward Bury and Robert Stephenson to receive that honour . He was also president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers for 1944, and was a vice president of the Stephenson Locomotive Society for a number of years until his death in 1965. He died in Rickmansworth in 1965. In 1906, he had married Ella Elizabeth, daughter of Levi L Morse. They had
350-409: The companies it absorbed. However, the other three found that former influences remained strong. The Southern's management remained decentralised, respecting the three distinct bundles of routes inherited from its constituents. The LMS struggled to reconcile different traditions, especially in locomotive engineering, only resolving that situation in 1932 with the appointment of Sir William Stanier , from
375-532: The direction of the Railway Executive Committee . The railways were hired by the Government from 1 January 1941, to continue for one year after the end of the war. In return, a fixed Annual Rent of £43,468,705 was payable, divided between the companies according to a set formula. A commission was set up under the chairmanship of Sir Ernest Lemon to consider the post-war planning and reconstruction of
400-427: The flights switched to the larger Liverpool (Speke) from the late October, resuming through Barton on 15 April 1935. Routes operated from Cardiff Municipal Airport included Cardiff to Plymouth and Cardiff to Liverpool and commenced in 1934. In 1939, the operation of civil aircraft was restricted and part of the RAS fleet was placed under government control. The aircraft were involved in communications flights for
425-589: The local authority on Joint Omnibus Committees in Halifax and Sheffield. In October 1933, the railways jointly purchased the Hay's Wharf Cartage Company Ltd., owners of Pickfords , and Carter Paterson . Air services were another area of co-operation. The GWR, LMS and Southern acquired British and Foreign Aviation, Ltd. and formed Railway Air Services Ltd. Channel Island Airways, Ltd. and its subsidiaries ( Jersey Airways , Ltd. and Guernsey Airways, Ltd.) were wholly owned by
450-1019: The military within the British Isles. By 1940, the Royal Air Force had taken over all the military communications tasks and the airline returned to flying routes 'of national importance'. In practice, wartime operations were restricted to the Liverpool-Belfast-Glasgow route carrying government and other 'priority' passengers and mail. Railway Air Services resumed peacetime flights in early 1946, now also using their newly acquired Avro Ansons and ex-RAF Douglas DC-3 Dakotas . A number of ex Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 52 trimotor aircraft were used during 1946/47 before retirement and scrapping. The airline operated its Dakotas, with their higher passenger carrying capacity, on their non-stop flights from Croydon to Glasgow (Renfrew) Airport . A new twice-daily RAS scheduled service commenced on 29 July 1946, using
475-583: The railways, with representatives of the Big Four and the London Passenger Transport Board . Each company operated a number of lines jointly with one or more of the others, a situation which arose when the former joint owners of a route were placed into different post-grouping companies. Most of these were situated at or near the boundaries between two or more of the companies; however there were some notable examples which extended beyond this hinterland zone. The number of jointly operated lines
500-533: Was between London and Scotland (London-Birmingham-Manchester/Liverpool-Belfast-Glasgow). The trunk service commenced on 20 August 1934, using the airline's newly delivered DH.86 Express four-engined biplane airliners, which operated once daily in each direction. The service was mainly aimed at passengers wishing to connect at Croydon Airport with IALs flights to the Continent. RAS were unhappy with winter operations at Manchester's small airfield at Barton Aerodrome and
525-738: Was coined by The Railway Magazine in its issue of February 1923: "The Big Four of the New Railway Era". The Big Four were: The companies were formed as a result of the Railways Act 1921 , in a process known as "The Grouping" (of the railways), which came into effect on 1 January 1923. On 1 January 1948, the companies were nationalised to form British Railways as a result of the Transport Act 1947 . The three larger companies relied heavily on freight (especially coal), as well as long-distance passenger traffic. The Southern Railway, in contrast,
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#1732848432056550-742: Was greatly reduced by the grouping but a substantial number survived, including the Cheshire Lines Committee , the Forth Bridge Railway Company , the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway (all LMS/LNER) and the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway (LMS/SR). At in excess of 180 track miles, the M&;GN was the largest jointly operated network in Great Britain, and extended from Peterborough to
575-605: Was not achieved until nationalisation. One joint operation, the Fishguard & Rosslare Railways & Harbours Company , which Irish independence had rendered international, survives to this day. The Big Four inherited and developed networks of feeder bus services, and after 1928 began to acquire majority shareholdings in local bus companies, such as the Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company , Crosville and United Automobile Services . However, railway involvement in bus operations
600-481: Was predominantly a passenger railway, which, despite its small size, carried more than a quarter of the total UK passenger traffic. That was because the area it served included some of the most densely-populated parts of the country and many of the well-patronised commuter lines radiating from London. It responded to that geography by pursuing a vigorous policy of electrification. The GWR was the only company to retain its pre-grouping identity, which it duly imposed on all
625-548: Was transformed in the period 1928–30. The companies’ legal powers to run bus services were unclear and each promoted private legislation (the Road Powers Acts of 1928) to obtain clarity. Concessions were demanded in return, including the key one that the railways would refrain from taking a controlling interest in bus undertakings. This led the companies to enter into partnerships with the bus combines: British Electric Traction , Scottish Motor Traction and Thomas Tilling , also
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