Welcome to the Great Eastern Railway Society website
We hope visitors will find plenty of interest about the former Great Eastern Railway (GER), its predecessors, successors and related railways in the East Anglia area.
The Society caters for all aspects of the railway, both historical and modern day. We take an interest not only in the GER (1862-1922) but also its predecessors such as the Eastern Counties Railway and its successors including the GE Section of the LNER and BR, right through to the present day Network Rail and the Train Operating Companies. Other associated railways in the region are also covered, including the London, Tilbury & Southend Railway, the Colne Valley and Halstead Railway, the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway and the Southwold Railway.
Our members include general enthusiasts, serious railway researchers, ex-railwaymen, dedicated railway modellers, owners/users of ex-GER buildings and librarians/archivists. So browse the site to see how the Great Eastern Railway Society (GERS) can help you.
The Society was formed in 1973 in order to promote a widespread interest in the Great Eastern Railway, to encourage and co-ordinate research into its history, and to provide a permanent record of the results. This is being achieved by building upon the knowledge of the known GER experts, and by locating and studying all surviving records of the railway...
The GER was created in 1862 from the amalgamation of most of the then existing smaller railways in East Anglia. From then until absorption into the LNER at the 1923 Grouping, it was the dominant railway company in East Anglia, only facing competition from the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway to the north and the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway to the south. Although not a wealthy railway, by 1923 it had more passenger traffic than any other constituent company and possessed the greatest number of carriages.
