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The Great Northern Railway (GNR) was a British railway company, founded by the London & York Railway Act of 1846.

The main line ran from London via Hitchin, Peterborough, and Grantham, to York, a loop line from Peterborough to Bawtry south of Doncaster via Boston and Lincoln, and branch lines to Sheffield and Wakefield.

The first section of line to be opened in 1848 was between LouthThis article is about the town of Louth in England. See also County Louth and Louth, New South Wales. Louth is a market town in Lincolnshire, England, known as the "capital of the Lincolnshire Wolds". It is lined with brick buildings from the seventeenth and GrimsbyThere is also the small town of Grimsby, Ontario Great Grimsby is a seaport on the river Humber in the north of England, which has a population of 91,000, 11,000 of the population of Grimsby live in the village of Scartho which was absorbed into Grimsby b. This was followed in 1849Events January 23 Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her MD by the Medical Institute of Geneva, New York, thus becoming the United States' first woman doctor January 31 Corn Laws abolished in the United Kingdom February 14 In New York City, James Knox Polk be by Peterborough to Doncaster via Lincoln. In 1850Events January 4 The first American ice-skating club is formed ( Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). January 29 Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the United States Congress February 28 University of Utah opens in Salt Lake City, Utah March 7 United the line was opened to Peterborough from a temporary station at Maiden Lane in London and Doncaster to York via Askern. By 1852Events January 14 President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte proclaims a new constitution for the French Second Republic. January 17 United Kingdom recognizes independence of the Transvaal Devil's Island penal colony opens February 11 First British public toilet the main line from London to Doncaster was open, as was the new London terminus of Kings Cross. A locomotive works was completed at Doncaster in 1853Events January 19 Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore premieres in Rome January 21 Russell L. Hawes patents the envelope folding machine January 29 Napoleon III marries the Spanish Countess Eugenie at the Tuileries March 4 Inauguration of US president Fra.

The Peterborough-Grantham-Retford direct route was opened in 1853Events January 19 Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore premieres in Rome January 21 Russell L. Hawes patents the envelope folding machine January 29 Napoleon III marries the Spanish Countess Eugenie at the Tuileries March 4 Inauguration of US president Fra and by either purchasing other railways or obtaining running powers over them, the GNR gained access to Bradford, Cambridge, Halifax, Leicester and Nottingham. By 1857, a working arrangement was made with the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MSLR), which enabled the GNR to run London-Sheffield-Manchester express services. In 1858, the GNR line into London from Hitchin was also used by the Midland Railway. Both these developments helped to undermine the "Euston Square Confederacy" established by the London and North Western Railway.

By the late 1850s the GNR had access to all the important West Yorkshire towns. The profits gained from the coal traffic from this area to London prompted the Great Eastern and Lancashire and Yorkshire Railways to promote a bill for a trunk line from Doncaster through Lincolnshire. This was rejected by Parliament in both 1865 and 1871. The GNR pursued territorial interests outside its original areas of interest by jointly promoting a Manchester-Liverpool route with the MSLR in 1865. This grew with further expansion into Cheshire and Lancashire via its involvement with the Cheshire Lines Committee, in concert with MSLR and MR.

By the 1870s, the GNR was running a more intensive service of express trains than either the LNWR or MR. Hauled by Patrick Stirling's single driving-wheel locomotives, they were some of the fastest in the world.

Expanding rapidly through the 1860s, the GNR was most profitable in 1873. However, in 1875, the increase in revenue was out-paced by investment, which included items such as block signalling systems and interlocking, and improvements to stations and goods sidings. The railway risked over-extending itself by marginally profitable extensions to the CLC network and construction of lines in Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire under joint control with the LNWR. Access was gained to the Norfolk coast by a joint acquisition with the MR of the Eastern and Midlands Railway from 1889, the system being known as the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway.

The GNR's role in the establishment of an Anglo-Scottish East Coast route was confirmed by establishment of the East Coast Joint Stock in 1860, whereby a common pool of passenger vehicles was operated by the GNR, North Eastern and North British Railways. The main express trains were the 10am departures from Kings Cross and Edinburgh Waverley which began running in June 1862. By the 1870s they were known as the Flying Scotsman. The GNR's trains were improved and expanded from the late 1870s, notably with the introduction of the first regular restaurant car service in 1879 and the fitting of continuous vacuum braking by 1881.

Suburban development in North London brought a rapid increase in season ticket traffic. The City was catered for by trains running to Broad Street, following reciprocal arrangements with the North London Railway set up in 1875. Widening of the London end of the main line was completed in the 1890s.

The main revenue of the GNR was derived from freight, mainly coal, for which major marshalling yards were built at Doncaster, Colwick (Nottingham), New England (Peterborough) and Ferme Park (London). For merchandise traffic, the GNR was a pioneer of the fully braked goods train.

Under the 1923 Grouping, it became part of the London and North Eastern Railway.