The Caledonian Railway was a major Scottish railway company. The railway was well supported by Glasgow and Edinburgh shareholders, however more than half of its shares were held in England. The company was formed in the 1830s to link local railways around Glasgow and Edinburgh to the railway network in England, at Carlisle. It sought to open the only cross-border main line (it was thought that only one main line was needed). Its reach was then extended to cover the triangle: Glasgow, Stirling and Edinburgh; and later extended to serve Oban, Ballachulish, Dundee, Perth and Aberdeen. It was an integrated railway company, in that it built and owned both the railway lines and the trains. It had a locomotive works, St. Rollox railway works, in Springburn, Glasgow, which became part of British Rail and is still in use as of 2006, as a railway maintenance depot. In the Scottish Lowlands it competed against both the Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) and the North British Railway. There was little or no competition above Oban, Ballachulish, Dundee, Perth and Aberdeen; this area was served mainly by the Highland Railway. The Caledonian Railway was absorbed into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, in the 1923 railway "grouping," by means of the Railways Act 1921.
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