How would you rank the Big 4 railway companies in terms of your liking/interests?

[Downer]

17 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

There were 120 companies grouped in 1923, go for it!

I did say ‘major’.

[OnTheBranchline]

I might delete this poll and re-do as a multi question so it's a bit more organized?

[Michael Hodgson]

I note I wasn't allowed my preference for the M&GNJR/CLC/S&DJR/WC&PR!

 

It might be interesting to summarise the results by big four ranking (ignoring what people chose for second & thiord choice)

 

And I wonder whether you would get more or less the same results if you had asked by BR Region - though of course you would run into the complication of extra regions BR(ScR), with apologies to Scots who think its a country not a region and BR(NER) which only proved to be a region temporarily.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 24, 2022 by Michael Hodgson

[kevinlms]

37 minutes ago, OnTheBranchline said:

I might delete this poll and re-do as a multi question so it's a bit more organized?

I think it's fine as it is. You have 24 options, covering the 4 groups.

[Reorte]

LMS, LNER, GWR, SR, largely based on proximity to where I live or have lived and hence local interest.

[kevinlms]

52 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

I note I wasn't allowed my preference for the M&GNJR/CLC/S&DJR/WC&PR!

 

It might be interesting to summarise the results by big four ranking (ignoring what people chose for second & thiord choice)

 

And I wonder whether you would get more or less the same results if you had asked by BR Region - though of course you would run into the complication of extra regions BR(ScR), with apologies to Scots who think its a country not a region and BR(NER) which only proved to be a region temporarily.

 

 

 

 

 

Some might be happy with the option of ANY RAILWAY!

[Steamport Southport]

2 hours ago, Captain Kernow said:

Anyway, I'm not sure where those cute J72s come from, but they're one of my favourite engines. Anything that lovely must have come from Swindon.

 

 

Welsh/Liverpudlian I believe. Certainly had them in those places.

 

 

No idea why we are discussing the distribution of wagons, the thread is purely on "like/interest" rather than a scientific survey. 

 

It's like asking what your favourite film is rather than having an in depth discussion on how The Godfather is better than Marley and Me! Or that the best Christmas film is Die Hard or Gremlins, and not Scrooge.

 

 

Jason

[jjb1970]

SR first for me, largely because of OVSB, then GWR. I like LMS because of their big 4-6-2 red engines. I have nothing against LNER at all, I'm just not interested in them.

 

[Flying Pig]

1 hour ago, Downer said:

I did say ‘major’.

 

If I remember correctly, there are '120 factorial' ways of ranking that many companies.  The Web tells me that works out as 6.7 x 10^198 (6.7 times 1 with 198 zeroes after it).  This is more than the estimated number of particles in the universe by a factor of 10^118 so there might be some difficulty in setting up the poll on the forum software.

 

Best to stick with choosing just 4 railways in order of preference from the 120, as then there are only 200 million possibilities which is a lot more practicable to type in.

[DenysW]

4 hours ago, Captain Kernow said:

I've never really understood the concept of the LNER. What exactly was it, anyway? Perhaps some impecunious, semi-moribund light railway over towards Ipswich?

Very harsh. LNER suffered most from the decisions to merge railways companies as-is into 4 roughly-equally sized entities based on legal simplicity, and also not to create an early Scotrail to suffer on its own lack of merits. So some-one had to get all of the Great Central and all of the Great Eastern - hence LNER, whose profitable parts (GNR, NER) were focussed on coals to London/export and passengers to/from the North. Logically to get to Edinburgh this gives LNER the North British (to Mallaig!) as well. As some-one had to get the rest of the lightly profitable Scots lines, dump them on LMS. As GNoS were an awkward bunch since foundation, put them as an isolated outpost of LNER, not, more logically into the LMS that surrounded them.

 

Additionally, any rational, apolitical Grouping would have resolved the Joint railways instead of leaving them Joint between two or more of the Big 4 entities, and probably put LT&S into LNER. But if it's politically impossible for Parliament to split ownership, that's what you get. As it was, Caledonian took legal action claiming the year chosen to be the level playing field to compare stock values was unfair to them.

[Dunsignalling]

Really the BR regions for me rather than the grouped companies.

 

1st. Southern, primarily the non-electrified parts.

 

2nd  and 3rd, joint LMR and WR but mainly where they came into contact with the SR, I.e. Somerset & Dorset, Reading-Redhill, bits of Devon & Cornwall, etc.

 

4th, ER in which, for whatever reason, I've never managed to muster much interest beyond carriages (attractively obsolescent)  and wagons that came "our way". 

 

John

 

Edited November 24, 2022 by Dunsignalling

[Michael Hodgson]

3 hours ago, Reorte said:

LMS, LNER, GWR, SR, largely based on proximity to where I live or have lived and hence local interest.

 

Me too, though I've lived in the London Midland, Eastern, North Eastern, Western, Scottish and Southern Regions.

[tomparryharry]

10 hours ago, kevinlms said:

At the time of writing this, there are 40 votes.

 

Counting up railways in 1st or 2nd place, we have.

 

LNER 22 Votes

LMS 21 Votes

GWR 19 Votes

SR 18 Votes

 

Which adds up to 80.

 

So the top 2 currently are the 2 northern companies.

 

Edit to add

 

5 minutes after I post this, someone has deleted their vote!!!!!!!!!!!

That's 'about' the breakdown percentages of the big 4 wagons.  Hmmm, interesting.... 

[Dunsignalling]

1 hour ago, tomparryharry said:

That's 'about' the breakdown percentages of the big 4 wagons.  Hmmm, interesting.... 

It's also interesting to  compare the percentages where a company came top with those where it came last.

 

My "Marmite Index" has probably changed since I totted it up a couple of hours ago, but the Southern came out dead level at 16.13% either way, LNER +22.58% / -24.80%, GWR +25.61% / -29.04%, and the LMS the only positive numbers at +22.58% / -17.74%.

 

John

[OnTheBranchline]

6 hours ago, kevinlms said:

I think it's fine as it is. You have 24 options, covering the 4 groups.

but it was more for analysis of the other company by each favourite big 4 rather than a straight popularity contest.

[Trainshed Terry]

1. GWR

2. Southern

3.LMS

4. LNER

 

Terry

[Captain Kernow]

5 hours ago, DenysW said:

Very harsh

Quite right too! 😉😉😛

 

5 hours ago, DenysW said:

 LNER suffered most from the decisions to merge railways companies as-is into 4 roughly-equally sized entities based on legal simplicity

That's politicians for you! Can't blame the GWR for any of that. If I were King, I'd have given the whole country's railways to the GWR! (except for the MIdland Railway's bits, anything east of the Pennines and the Bishops Castle Light Railway and anything else run by Col. Stephens.

 

Oh, and I'd have made the GNR, GER et al merge into a super-sized Great Central empire (that was another railway worthy of the title 'Great').

 

 

[DenysW]

17 minutes ago, Captain Kernow said:

super-sized Great Central empire (that was another railway worthy of the title 'Great')

Is this a celebration of the Money Sunk & Lost changing into the Gone Completely? Some nice locomotives however.

['CHARD]

Interesting question and concept!  I was born too late to know any of the Big Four, but their legacy and influence on my interests is in the order I discovered their coverage and subsequently explored the network; so LMS (local to me), LNER (because it inherited the Waverley Route), GWR (local) and SR.  The last of the four I barely understand, except for the Withered Arm. 

[tomparryharry]

Oh dear, the Great Central, only second to the Great Western.... Kings on the Berne gauge? Oh yes!

 

 

[kevinlms]

17 hours ago, kevinlms said:

At the time of writing this, there are 40 votes.

 

Counting up railways in 1st or 2nd place, we have.

 

LNER 22 Votes

LMS 21 Votes

GWR 19 Votes

SR 18 Votes

 

Which adds up to 80.

 

So the top 2 currently are the 2 northern companies.

 

Edit to add

 

5 minutes after I post this, someone has deleted their vote!!!!!!!!!!!

Latest version at 77 votes, we now have

 

LNER 47 votes

LMS 43 votes

GWR 35 votes

SR 29 votes

 

So the 2 northern companies still lead. I would have expected the LMS to be doing better.

 

So much for idea that there is the Great Western and the others!

[BachelorBoy]

I haven't been able to take the GWR seriously ever since since an acquaintance called it the "Gruesome Winkers' Railway"

 

That was 40 years ago. Except of course, he didn't actually say "winkers".

 

Edited November 25, 2022 by BachelorBoy
corrected spelling mitsake

[HonestTom]

I honestly can't rank them, my preference keeps changing. Plus I like the different railways for different reasons.

 

SR - Grew up in their territory, always admired their commuter routes, love their embrace of Art Deco, fond memories of the Mid Hants and Bluebell Railways.

 

GWR - I like their design throughout their existence, fond memories of Didcot, admired Brunel's think-big-regardless-of-anyone-else attitude, the train ride from Paddington to St Ives is probably my favourite, their travel poster game was always on point.

 

LNER - Love Gresley's Pacifics, the train journey from King's Cross to Edinburgh is another favourite, I'm obsessed with the GE lines of East London and the GN lines of North London, the politics and economics are fascinating, and again the Art Deco.

 

LMS - I have several familial connections and Stanier's designs are some of my favourite locomotives ever built. I don't think there's a single one of their major constituents that doesn't interest me (but NSR 4eva). 

 

Ranking them almost feels to me like ranking your friends. Is that weird? That's kind of how I feel about it.

[DenysW]

8 hours ago, tomparryharry said:

Oh dear, the Great Central, only second to the Great Western.... Kings on the Berne gauge? Oh yes!

That Berne gauge assertion has the survival power of the cockroach, as I think I detect that you already know.

[tomparryharry]

2 hours ago, DenysW said:

That Berne gauge assertion has the survival power of the cockroach, as I think I detect that you already know.

You are absolutely correct. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. It does make you wonder though, doesn't it?