I will be the first to admit that this is a very niche timeline, but what the hey, I am an ardent rail fan, indulge me. I got a request for it after all 
For those of you who are not intimately acquainted with the History of the British railway network, a brief review of OTL is necessary. Since 1923 the railways had been run by 4 large companies, the London North Eastern Railway (LNER), The Southern Railway (SR), The London Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS), and The Great Western Railway (GWR, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Western_Railway). Of these, the GWR had by far the longest and most illustrious history. Formed in 1838, and with a history of strident independence, it was the only one of the big four which had existed before 1923. After the Second World War, the railway infrastructure in the UK was in crisis. The effects of bombing, lack of maintenance and the pressures put on the system by the military had brought the already ailing network to its knees. Millions of pounds of investment were needed simply to put things right, and all four companies were in financial ruin. It was decided by the Attlee government that the only solution was to extend their Nationalisation program to the railways. From the first of January 1948, all railways in the UK were made part of British Railways, owned by the state. Over the next 20 years they would put well the war damage, and attempt to make the railways profitable. However, by the mid 60s, the railways were failing to compete with road traffic and a round politically motivated “modernisation” and “cost cutting” began, with the loss of hundreds of stations and tens of thousands of track miles, a blow that the British rail network would never recover from.
So much for History. I have been working on a number of drawings, theorising locomotives that might have been built had the railways escaped nationalisation. Why this happened is not important, what is, is the impact on the railways and on the GWR in particular…
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1947
The transport bill, which had proposed the nationalisation of all British transport and the creation of a state owned railway, is narrowly defeated in the House of Lords. They send the bill back to the commons. In a radical alteration to the original bill, it is instead suggested that the existing railway companies be subsidised instead with a large government loan and tax relief program, worked out according to their freight tonnage and passenger use in the 1947 financial year. The loan was directed at aiding the re-building and modernisation of the rail system, with incentives for electrification.
1948
The transport Act (1948) is passed.
Breathing a collective sight of relief, the rail industry gets down to the task of rebuilding their industry, boosted by the government cash. In the case of the GWR, this meant several things. Firstly, there was the repair of the trunk routes, several of which still had major bridge work and bomb damage to repair. In the case of the London-Bristol Main line, the structures were slowly upgraded to allow for a higher axle weight, a process that would continue till 1950. Stations and yards in London, Birmingham, Cardiff and Manchester which had bomb damage were repaired over the course of the year.
1949
One of the largest sources of inefficiency in the railway system was its plethora of different loco types, many of them antiquated and hopelessly outdated. Whilst the GWR was better than most, it was still using many locomotives that they had inherited in 1923. As part of their loan conditions, the railways had been forced to make moves towards standardisation of their rolling stock. For the GWR, this meant several new building programs to replace time worn stock. The Pannier tank classes, long the GWRs staple general purpose tank locomotives, were expanded, replacing several older designs. Many were auto-fitted to allow the use of auto coaches (A passenger coach with a driving cab in one end) on isolated branch line. A new line of large passenger and freight locomotives was designed, the first full production class of Pacific locomotives to run on the GWR, allowed now due to the increased main line weight capacity and new metallurgy techniques that allowed for a lighter locomotive. With a sharp increase in coal prices toward the end of the year, the decision was also made to expand what had an experimental purchase of 0-6-0 diesel shunters made during the war. A further 50 were ordered to replace some small tank locomotives in the larger marshalling yards.
1950
With the completion of the upgrades to the London-Bristol main line, the first of the “Empress” class locomotives entered service. For the railway men these would always be called “Super kings” ,becuase not only were they larger then their predesscors , but also because their long boiler and smoke-box resembled a particular brand of cigarettes. The class would prove to be only mildly successful, as most other major lines would continue to have weight restrictions into the mid 1950s, meaning that the pre-war “King” and “Castle” classes would continue to hold sway for several years yet. The 1950 summer season was one of the most successful since the heydays of the 1930s, with the “Cornish Riviera” proving particularly popular. The continued high cost of coal prompted several investigations into how to save money on suburban passenger services and on the various cross-county passenger services where capacity was limited. Electrification was proposed for the London-Oxford line, but many within the company opposed it, the GWR having no other electrified lines to base their experience on, and few other lines that the investment would be worth replicating on. Instead, a 3rd generation of Diesel Railcars were put forward, based on the success of several pre-war designs. A unique feature of these new cars would be their adaptability; they were designed as a single-car unit, but with flexible gangway connections at both ends so that one or more units could be used with (slightly modified) carriages between them. This meant that they could now not only be used in pairs on heavy suburban services, but on their own on the smaller lines.
More to come...
For those of you who are not intimately acquainted with the History of the British railway network, a brief review of OTL is necessary. Since 1923 the railways had been run by 4 large companies, the London North Eastern Railway (LNER), The Southern Railway (SR), The London Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS), and The Great Western Railway (GWR, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Western_Railway). Of these, the GWR had by far the longest and most illustrious history. Formed in 1838, and with a history of strident independence, it was the only one of the big four which had existed before 1923. After the Second World War, the railway infrastructure in the UK was in crisis. The effects of bombing, lack of maintenance and the pressures put on the system by the military had brought the already ailing network to its knees. Millions of pounds of investment were needed simply to put things right, and all four companies were in financial ruin. It was decided by the Attlee government that the only solution was to extend their Nationalisation program to the railways. From the first of January 1948, all railways in the UK were made part of British Railways, owned by the state. Over the next 20 years they would put well the war damage, and attempt to make the railways profitable. However, by the mid 60s, the railways were failing to compete with road traffic and a round politically motivated “modernisation” and “cost cutting” began, with the loss of hundreds of stations and tens of thousands of track miles, a blow that the British rail network would never recover from.
So much for History. I have been working on a number of drawings, theorising locomotives that might have been built had the railways escaped nationalisation. Why this happened is not important, what is, is the impact on the railways and on the GWR in particular…
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1947
The transport bill, which had proposed the nationalisation of all British transport and the creation of a state owned railway, is narrowly defeated in the House of Lords. They send the bill back to the commons. In a radical alteration to the original bill, it is instead suggested that the existing railway companies be subsidised instead with a large government loan and tax relief program, worked out according to their freight tonnage and passenger use in the 1947 financial year. The loan was directed at aiding the re-building and modernisation of the rail system, with incentives for electrification.
1948
The transport Act (1948) is passed.
Breathing a collective sight of relief, the rail industry gets down to the task of rebuilding their industry, boosted by the government cash. In the case of the GWR, this meant several things. Firstly, there was the repair of the trunk routes, several of which still had major bridge work and bomb damage to repair. In the case of the London-Bristol Main line, the structures were slowly upgraded to allow for a higher axle weight, a process that would continue till 1950. Stations and yards in London, Birmingham, Cardiff and Manchester which had bomb damage were repaired over the course of the year.
1949
One of the largest sources of inefficiency in the railway system was its plethora of different loco types, many of them antiquated and hopelessly outdated. Whilst the GWR was better than most, it was still using many locomotives that they had inherited in 1923. As part of their loan conditions, the railways had been forced to make moves towards standardisation of their rolling stock. For the GWR, this meant several new building programs to replace time worn stock. The Pannier tank classes, long the GWRs staple general purpose tank locomotives, were expanded, replacing several older designs. Many were auto-fitted to allow the use of auto coaches (A passenger coach with a driving cab in one end) on isolated branch line. A new line of large passenger and freight locomotives was designed, the first full production class of Pacific locomotives to run on the GWR, allowed now due to the increased main line weight capacity and new metallurgy techniques that allowed for a lighter locomotive. With a sharp increase in coal prices toward the end of the year, the decision was also made to expand what had an experimental purchase of 0-6-0 diesel shunters made during the war. A further 50 were ordered to replace some small tank locomotives in the larger marshalling yards.
1950
With the completion of the upgrades to the London-Bristol main line, the first of the “Empress” class locomotives entered service. For the railway men these would always be called “Super kings” ,becuase not only were they larger then their predesscors , but also because their long boiler and smoke-box resembled a particular brand of cigarettes. The class would prove to be only mildly successful, as most other major lines would continue to have weight restrictions into the mid 1950s, meaning that the pre-war “King” and “Castle” classes would continue to hold sway for several years yet. The 1950 summer season was one of the most successful since the heydays of the 1930s, with the “Cornish Riviera” proving particularly popular. The continued high cost of coal prompted several investigations into how to save money on suburban passenger services and on the various cross-county passenger services where capacity was limited. Electrification was proposed for the London-Oxford line, but many within the company opposed it, the GWR having no other electrified lines to base their experience on, and few other lines that the investment would be worth replicating on. Instead, a 3rd generation of Diesel Railcars were put forward, based on the success of several pre-war designs. A unique feature of these new cars would be their adaptability; they were designed as a single-car unit, but with flexible gangway connections at both ends so that one or more units could be used with (slightly modified) carriages between them. This meant that they could now not only be used in pairs on heavy suburban services, but on their own on the smaller lines.
More to come...
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