Midland railway

Midland Railway

Midland Railway coat of arms at Derby Station. The wyvern that surmounts it had been used by the Leicester and Swannington Railway. It was the emblem of the rulers of Mercia and was used extensively as an emblem by the Midland.
Dates of operation	1846–1922
Successor	London, Midland and Scottish Railway
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 to 1922, when it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. It had a large network of lines managed from its headquarters in Derby. It became the third-largest railway undertaking in the British Isles (after the Great Western Railway and the London and North Western Railway).

The Midland Railway Consolidation Act was passed in 1844 authorising the merger of the Midland Counties Railway, the North Midland Railway, and the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway. These met at the Tri-Junct station at Derby, where the MR established its locomotive and later its carriage and wagon works.

Leading it were George Hudson from the North Midland, dynamic but unscrupulous, and John Ellis from the Midland Counties, a careful businessman of impeccable integrity. James Allport from the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway found a place elsewhere in Hudson's empire with the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway, though he later returned.

The MR was in a commanding position having its Derby headquarters at the junctions of the two main routes from London to Scotland, by its connections to the London and Birmingham Railway in the south, and from York via the York and North Midland Railway in the north.