Bringing coal south to London was dominant, but general agricultural business, and short- and long-distance passenger traffic, were important activities too.

Its fast passenger express trains captured the public imagination, and its Chief Mechanical Engineer Nigel Gresley became a celebrity.

George Hudson continued to use his dubious methods to frustrate the scheme, but on 26 June the Great Northern Railway Act 1846 (9 & 10 Vict.

[2] The authorised line was from London ("Pentonville") via Huntingdon, Peterborough, Grantham, Retford, Doncaster and Selby to a junction with the Great North of England Railway, just south of York Station.

Also included in the act was a loop from Werrington Junction, north of Peterborough, via Spalding to Boston, Lincoln to Gainsborough and back on to the main line at Bawtry.

But at the end of July a further small contract was let to Messrs. Peto & Betts for the works from ... Doncaster, northwards to Askern, with the object of forming an "end-on" junction there with the branch of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Company, over which... the Great Northern had just obtained power to run its trains to Wakefield and to Methley on the way to Leeds.

Five trains ran each way every weekday, and on from Grimsby to New Holland on the River Humber, by alliance with the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway.

[12] By this means, the GNR was able to start a service between London and Leeds using running powers and agreements over other lines in a roundabout routing northward from Retford; George Hudson tried to repudiate his earlier undertaking to permit this, but at this time his disgraceful methods had come to light, and he had resigned from the Midland Railway and several other boards; the train service started on 1 October 1848.

Huish was a skilful railway diplomat, and while his methods were generally more proper than Hudson's, they were aggressive in finding means of disadvantaging competitors, such as the GNR.

In 1852 the shareholders expressed their displeasure at the volume of financial commitments implied by these, but the Chairman Edmund Denison continued his policy, without showing his hand.

The Towns Line ran from Werrington Junction north of Peterborough to Retford, where the MS&LR connected by a spur, known as the Lincoln Curve.

The Ambergate company relied on running powers into the Midland Railway station at Nottingham, but there were considerable disputes about the matter for many years, and the GNR had difficulty in getting access.

[23] Reflecting the anticipated focus of operations, the GNR opened a new locomotive works at Doncaster in 1853, replacing earlier facilities at Boston.

The GNR further extended southwards to a temporary station immediately north of the River Don at Doncaster; it opened on the following 5 August in time for the St Leger race meeting.

[28] In 1863 the BW&LR changed its title to the West Yorkshire Railway, and in that year both it and the LB&HJR agreed to be absorbed by the GNR; this was authorised by an act of Parliament[which?]

[28] The GNR was therefore able to consolidate a substantial network in West Yorkshire, bringing Wakefield, Leeds, Bradford and Halifax into its area of influence.

It opened its line on 1 February 1866 and on the same day the hitherto independent concern became the joint property of the GNR and the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway.

The R&HR was acquired by the GNR in 1897, but the Cambridge end of the line, from Shepreth, remained in Great Eastern Railway (as successor to the ECR) hands until the Grouping of 1923.

[40] George Hudson's Midland Railway was progressing south from its original base in Derby; for tactical reasons it proposed to reach London over the GNR from Hitchin, by building a line from Leicester via Bedford.

The Midland Railway later joined the partnership, and the Cheshire Lines Committee continued as a management entity until nationalisation at the end of 1947.

The dominant business was residential travel, and the southern terminals used included Blackfriars, Loughborough Road, and later Moorgate and Broad Street.

However, in 1875, the increase in revenue was outpaced by investment, which included items such as block signalling systems and interlocking, and improvements to stations and goods sidings.

The terrain crossed at the Nottingham end of the line was exceptionally difficult, and costly, but it undoubtedly paid off, as lucrative coal traffic expanded enormously.

A large group of sorting sidings were installed, and engine shed and wagon repair facilities; the Colwick yard was expanded repeatedly over later years, eventually having a capacity for 6,000 vehicles.

Road competition hit the part of the extension line west of Derby, and in 1939 the passenger service was withdrawn because of the war emergency.

[54][55] Coalowners in the Leen Valley petitioned the GNR for a line in their area, as they were dissatisfied with the service offered by the monopoly Midland Railway.

[56] The early 1880s began badly for the GNR for a number of reasons: Coal strikes and poor harvests reduced income from goods traffic.

The Great Northern Railway consistently resisted this in Parliament, but finally decided that it was only a matter of time before the GER got what it wanted.

Work started in 1905 to extend the Enfield Branch Railway in order to relieve congestion on the East Coast Main Line.

Cuffley was reached on 4 April 1910, but construction of two major viaducts and the 2,684 yards or 2,454 metres Ponsbourne Tunnel combined with wartime shortages of men and materials, delayed the opening of the route to Stevenage until 4 March 1918 for goods services.