WITH the Government set to restore the LNER name to Britain's railways, we thought we'd have a look back through the archives and came across these old railway posters.

Rail services on the East Coast Main Line will be brought back under public control following the termination of the franchise agreement with Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC).

From June 24 they will operate under the name of "one of Britain's iconic rail brands", the London North Eastern Railway (LNER), Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said.

The original London and North Eastern Railway was the second largest of the groups created by the Railways Act 1921.

It included the East Coast Main Line from London to Edinburgh via York and the routes from Edinburgh to Aberdeen and Inverness. The main workshops were in Darlington, Doncaster, Gateshead, Inverurie and Stratford, London.

It depended on freight from heavy industry in Yorkshire, the North-East and Scotland, and its revenue was reduced by the economic depression for much of the early part of its existence. 

For passenger services, Sir Nigel Gresley, the chief mechanical engineer built a range of handsome express passenger locomotives for the line which included the non stop London-Edinburgh run of the Flying Scotsman, the introduction of all-Pullman trains such as the Queen of Scots and the novel concept of train-cruising as a luxury holiday, with the Northern Belle.

On January 1 1948 the LNER was divided up between the Eastern, North Eastern and Scottish regions of the new railway executive as part of the nationalisation programme.