Race to the North

The Race to the North was the name given by the press to occasions in two summers of the late 19th century when British passenger trains belonging to different companies would literally race each other from London to Scotland over the two principal rail trunk routes connecting the English capital city to Scotland – the West Coast Main Line which runs from London Euston via Crewe and Carlisle and the East Coast Main Line route from London King's Cross via York and Newcastle. The "races" were never official and publicly the companies denied that what happened was racing at all. Results were not announced officially and the outcomes have since been hotly debated. In the 20th century there were also occasions of competition for speed on the two routes.

The late nineteenth century was a boom time for the railways in Britain with many independent companies operating but with poor coordination between the companies' lines. Gradually merger and other formal agreements were made so that travel across the country became feasible. For the first time long-distance rail travel could be afforded by the general public. By the 1880s two consortia in particular provided services between London and Edinburgh using separate routes on the east and west coasts of Britain terminating in London at King's Cross and Euston stations, and in Edinburgh at Waverley and Princes Street stations. Great Northern Railway (GNR) and North Eastern Railway (NER) ran the East Coast service with London and North Western Railway (LNWR) and Caledonian Railway (CR) on the West Coast. The companies each had territories where they owned the track or had legally enforcible running rights on some other tracks. At the "borders" between these companies' territories – York and Carlisle – locomotives were always changed (and they were generally changed at intermediate points also) but passengers did not necessarily have to change carriage.

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