North British Railway

The North British Railway was one of Scotland's two largest railway companies before the 1923 grouping, established by an 1844 Act of Parliament and opening its first line from Edinburgh to Berwick in 1846 before expanding across Scotland through acquisition and new construction. Headquartered in Edinburgh, it grew to about 1,378 route miles by 1919, running passenger and freight services along with ventures such as Clyde steamers and hotels, and its rivalry with the Caledonian Railway drove an expansionist strategy that led to major financial crises even as the company built the replacement Tay and Forth bridges. By 1922 it had become the largest railway company in Scotland and the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, before ceasing independent operation on January 1, 1923 under the Railways Act 1921, when it became a constituent of the new London and North 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/