Northern and Eastern Railway

The Northern and Eastern Railway was an early British railway company, chartered by the Northern and Eastern Railway Act of 1836, that originally planned to build a line from London to York but scaled back its ambitions to a route from Stratford, east of London, through Bishop's Stortford to Hertford. Perpetually underfunded, the company relied on the Eastern Counties Railway to reach London, and its line, first built to a five foot gauge before conversion to standard gauge in 1844, opened progressively between 1840 and 1842. From 1844 the company operated purely as a financial entity after leasing its network to the Eastern Counties Railway for 999 years, and it was ultimately succeeded by the Great Eastern Railway. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/