Editing Great Western Railway (section)

=== Brunel's 7-foot gauge and the "gauge war" ===
{{Sidebar track gauge}}
{{See also|British Gauge War|London and South Western Railway#Gauge wars|Isambard Kingdom Brunel#Great Western Railway|List of GWR broad gauge locomotives}}
[[File:Baulk road point with side step.jpg|thumb|left|upright|alt=A rail track recedes into the distance where a steam train stands; the track has three rails, the middle of which is offset to the right in the foreground but switches to the left in the middle at some complex pointwork where three other rails join from the left|A [[broad-gauge]] train on [[Dual gauge|mixed-gauge]] track]]
Brunel had devised a {{RailGauge|7ft}} track gauge for his railways in 1835. He later added {{convert|1/4|in|mm}}, probably to reduce friction of the wheel sets in curves. This became the {{RailGauge|7ft0.25in}} broad gauge.<ref group="Note">In ''History of the Great Western Railway'' (1927 Edition, Volume 1, Part 1, Page 49), MacDermot states in a footnote <q>In laying the rails an extra quarter of an inch was allowed on the straight, making the gauge 7 ft. {{frac|1|4}} in. strictly speaking, but it was always referred to as 7 feet.</q></ref> Either gauge may be referred to as '''Brunel gauge'''.

In 1844, the broad-gauge [[Bristol and Gloucester Railway]] had opened, but Gloucester was already served by the {{RailGauge|ussg|allk=on}} lines of the [[Birmingham and Gloucester Railway]]. This resulted in a [[break-of-gauge]] that forced all passengers and goods to change trains if travelling between the south-west and the North. This was the beginning of the "gauge war" and led to the appointment by [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] of a [[Royal Commission on Railway Gauges|Gauge Commission]], which reported in 1846 in favour of standard gauge so the 7-foot gauge was proscribed by law ([[Railway Regulation (Gauge) Act 1846]]) except for the southwest of England and Wales where connected to the GWR network.{{sfn|MacDermot|1927|at=Chapter 6}}

Other railways in Britain were to use standard gauge. In 1846, the Bristol and Gloucester was bought by the [[Midland Railway]] and it was [[Track gauge conversion|converted]] to standard gauge in 1854, which brought [[mixed-gauge]] track to Temple Meads station&nbsp;– this had three rails to allow trains to run on either broad or standard gauge.{{sfn|MacDermot|1927|at=Chapter 8}}

The GWR extended into the [[West Midlands (region)|West Midlands]] in competition with the Midland and the [[London and North Western Railway]]. [[Birmingham Snow Hill railway station|Birmingham]] was reached through {{Stnlnk|Oxford}} in 1852 and [[Wolverhampton Low Level railway station|Wolverhampton]] in 1854.{{sfn|MacDermot|1927|at=Chapter 6}} This was the furthest north that the broad gauge reached.<ref>{{cite book |last= Steele |first= A.K. |title= Great Western Broad Gauge Album |year= 1972 |publisher= Oxford Publishing Company |location= Headington |isbn= 0-902888-11-0 |page= 4}}</ref> In the same year the [[Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway]] and the [[Shrewsbury and Chester Railway]] both [[Consolidation (business)|amalgamated]] with the GWR, but these lines were standard gauge,{{sfn|MacDermot|1927|at=Chapter 7}} and the GWR's own line north of Oxford had been built with mixed gauge.{{sfn|MacDermot|1927|at=Chapter 6}}

This mixed gauge was extended southwards from Oxford to {{Stnlnk|Basingstoke}} at the end of 1856 and so allowed through goods traffic from the north of England to the south coast (via the [[London and South Western Railway]]&nbsp;– LSWR) without [[transshipment]].{{sfn|MacDermot|1927|at=Chapter 6}}

[[File:Broad and standard mileage operated by GWR.png|thumb|300px|left|'''Broad and standard mileage operated by GWR'''<ref name="MacD1" /><ref name="MacD2" />
'''Key'''<br />
• '''Broad''' gauge&nbsp;– <span style="color:#0070C0">'''blue'''</span> (top)<br/>
• '''Mixed''' gauge&nbsp;– <span style="color:#77933C">'''green'''</span> (middle)<br/>
• '''Standard''' gauge&nbsp;– <span style="color:#F68222">'''orange'''</span> (bottom)<br/>
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" width=100%
! colspan=4 | Values to chart
|-
!31 December!!Broad!!Mixed!!Standard
|-
|1851||&nbsp;{{convert|269|mi|km}}||&nbsp;{{convert|3|mi|km|0}}||&nbsp;{{convert|0|mi|km|0}}
|-
|1856||&nbsp;{{convert|298|mi|km}}||&nbsp;{{convert|124|mi|km}}||&nbsp;{{convert|75|mi|km}}
|-
|1861||&nbsp;{{convert|327|mi|km}}||&nbsp;{{convert|182|mi|km}}||&nbsp;{{convert|81|mi|km}}
|-
|1866||&nbsp;{{convert|596|mi|km}}||&nbsp;{{convert|237|mi|km}}||&nbsp;{{convert|428|mi|km}}
|-
|1871||&nbsp;{{convert|524|mi|km}}||&nbsp;{{convert|141|mi|km}}||&nbsp;{{convert|655|mi|km}}
|-
|1876||&nbsp;{{convert|268|mi|km}}||&nbsp;{{convert|274|mi|km}}||&nbsp;{{convert|1481|mi|km}}
|-
|1881||&nbsp;{{convert|210|mi|km}}||&nbsp;{{convert|254|mi|km}}||&nbsp;{{convert|1674|mi|km}}
|-
|1886||&nbsp;{{convert|187|mi|km}}||&nbsp;{{convert|251|mi|km}}||&nbsp;{{convert|1918|mi|km}}
|-
|1891&nbsp;||&nbsp;{{convert|171|mi|km}}&nbsp;||&nbsp;{{convert|252|mi|km}}&nbsp;||&nbsp;{{convert|1982|mi|km}}&nbsp;
|}
]]

The line to Basingstoke had originally been built by the [[Berks and Hants Railway]] as a broad-gauge route in an attempt to keep the standard gauge of the LSWR out of Great Western territory but, in 1857, the GWR and LSWR opened a shared line to {{Stnlnk|Weymouth}} on the south coast, the GWR route being via Chippenham and a route initially started by the [[Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway]].{{sfn|MacDermot|1927|at=Chapter 6}}

Further west, the LSWR took over the broad-gauge [[Exeter and Crediton Railway]] and [[North Devon Railway]],<ref>{{cite book |last= Nicholas |first= John |title= The North Devon Line |year= 1992 |publisher= Oxford Publishing Company |location= Sparkford |isbn= 0-86093-461-6 |pages= 85–91}}</ref> also the standard-gauge [[Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway]]. It was several years before these remote lines were connected with the parent LSWR system and any through traffic to them was handled by the GWR and its associated companies.<ref>{{cite book |last= Whetmath |first= C.F.D. |title= The Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway |edition= 2nd |year= 1967 | pages= 21–28 |publisher= Branch Line Handbooks |location= Teddington | oclc =462667}}</ref>

By now the gauge war was lost and mixed gauge was brought to [[Paddington station|Paddington]] in 1861, allowing through passenger trains from London to Chester. The broad-gauge South Wales Railway amalgamated with the GWR in 1862, as did the [[West Midland Railway]], which brought with it the [[Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway]], a line that had been conceived as another broad-gauge route to the Midlands but which had been built as standard gauge after several battles, both political and physical.{{sfn|MacDermot|1927|at=Chapter 6}}{{sfn|MacDermot|1927|at=Chapter 9}}

On 1 April 1869, the broad gauge was taken out of use between Oxford and Wolverhampton and from Reading to Basingstoke. In August, the line from {{Stnlnk|Grange Court}} to {{Stnlnk|Hereford}} was converted from broad to standard and the whole of the line from Swindon through Gloucester to South Wales was similarly treated in May 1872. In 1874, the mixed gauge was extended along the main line to Chippenham and the line from there to Weymouth was narrowed. The following year saw mixed gauge laid through the Box Tunnel, with the broad gauge now retained only for through services beyond Bristol and on a few branch lines.{{sfn|MacDermot|1931|at=Chapter 2}}

The [[Bristol and Exeter Railway]] amalgamated with the GWR on 1 January 1876. It had already made a start on mixing the gauge on its line, a task completed through to [[Exeter St Davids railway station|Exeter]] on 1 March 1876 by the GWR.{{sfn|MacDermot|1931|at=Chapter 5}} The station here had been shared with the LSWR since 1862. This rival company had continued to push westwards over its Exeter and Crediton line and arrived in Plymouth later in 1876, which spurred the [[South Devon Railway Company|South Devon Railway]] to also amalgamate with the Great Western.{{sfn|MacDermot|1931|at=Chapter 6}} The [[Cornwall Railway]] remained a nominally independent line until 1889, although the GWR held a large number of shares in the company.{{sfn|MacDermot|1931|at=Chapter 7}}

One final new broad-gauge route was opened on 1 June 1877, the [[St Ives Bay Line|St Ives branch]] in west [[Cornwall]],{{sfn|MacDermot|1931|at=Chapter 9}} although there was also a small extension at [[Sutton Harbour]] in Plymouth in 1879.{{sfn|MacDermot|1931|at=Chapter 8}} Part of a mixed gauge point remains at Sutton Harbour, one of the few examples of broad gauge trackwork remaining in situ anywhere.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gregory |first1=R.H. |title=The South Devon Railway |date=1982 |publisher=Oakwood Press |isbn=0-85361-286-2 |page=75}}</ref>

Once the GWR was in control of the whole line from London to Penzance, it set about converting the remaining broad-gauge tracks. The last broad-gauge service left Paddington station on Friday, 20 May 1892; the following Monday, trains from Penzance were operated by standard-gauge locomotives.<ref>{{cite book|author=Clinker, C. R.|title=New light on the Gauge Conversion |year=1978 |publisher=Avon-Anglia |location=Bristol|isbn=0-905466-12-8| pages=15–16 }}</ref>