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Former British railway company

Originally called the Commercial Railway, the London and Blackwall Railway (L&BR) in east London, England, ran from Minories to Blackwall via Stepney, with a branch line to the Isle of Dogs, connecting central London to many of London's docks. It was operational from 1840 until 1926 (for passengers) and 1968 (for goods), closing after the decline of inner London's docks. Much of its infrastructure was reused as part of the Docklands Light Railway. The L&BR was leased by the Great Eastern Railway in 1866, but remained independent until absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway at the 1923 Grouping. Another branch was opened in 1871, the Millwall Extension Railway.

It was authorised by an Act of Parliament entitled An Act for making a Railway from the Minories to Blackwall, with Branches, to be called "The Commercial Railway" dated 28 July 1836 in the reign of William IV. The length of the railway was to be
The engineer of the line was intended to be John Rennie, but the project's City financiers favoured Robert Stephenson, believing that they would also benefit from the knowledge and wisdom of his respected father George. Although, because of the Act, Robert Stephenson had to follow Rennie's route and use the obscure track gauge of ,

The line opened on 6 July 1840, and the company changed its name to the London and Blackwall Railway on completion of an extension to Fenchurch Street, just within the City boundary, in 1841. The line was converted to use steam locomotives in 1848, partly because wear on the rope proved greater than anticipated (a steel wire replacement had been tried but this twisted and kinked ferociously) and partly in consequence of the intended 1849 extensions. A line from Stepney (now Limehouse) linking it with the Eastern Counties Railway at Bow was opened in 1849, known as the London and Blackwall Extension Railway (LBER), at which time the line was converted to steam locomotive operation and the track converted to Agreement between the L&BR and the ECR about operation of the services over the LBER could not be reached so the actual junction was not completed. An interchange station called Victoria Park and Bow was opened but the ECR stopped few services there so most services terminated at Bromley and Bow. Services were withdrawn from Victoria Park and Bow on 6 January 1851. By 1854 relations between the two companies had improved and the junction between the two lines was built and the LBER became part of the initial London Tilbury and Southend (LTSR) route to Fenchurch Street and the ECR started operating trains from Loughton into Fenchurch Street. The LBER was joined to the new London, Tilbury and Southend Railway direct line from Barking at Gas Factory Junction in 1858. In 1852 the North London Railway had linked up with the L&BR at Poplar, and Fenchurch Street became the terminus for that line until Broad Street opened in 1865. In 1871 another branch line, the Millwall Extension Railway, opened from Millwall Junction to Millwall Docks to serve the West India Docks better. A year later the line was extended to North Greenwich, near the site of the original Island Gardens DLR station.

[[File:Minories stationLBR. jpg|thumb|308px|Minories station on the LBR, circa 1840. The winding drums and Cooke Wheatstone “needle” telegraph instrument (left foreground) are shown. Note the lever operated brake to keep the cable taut during unwinding. The carriages were joined by link and pin couplings and the pin was withdrawn as each carriage was released. First and second class accommodation was provided; seats were not thought necessary in second class because of the short journey times. It was obviously dangerous to use the reverse method to pick up cars on journeys to the terminus, so all the cars were "pinned" to the cable at their respective stations and started simultaneously with the convoy departing from the terminus, the timing coordinated by an early example of the Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph. They arrived at the terminus at intervals and a new train gradually assembled itself, with the pair of cars from the far terminus becoming the lead pair for the return trip. The timetable was very simple: a train every 15 minutes. Power was provided by eight marine steam engines from Maudslay, Sons and Field, providing for four in use and four in maintenance. The Minories winding house had four at but the engines at Blackwall were only at as the overall gradient of the line fell from the west, where it was built on brick arches, to the east. The line was converted to use steam locomotives in 1848, partly because wear on the rope proved greater than anticipated (a steel wire replacement had been tried but this twisted and kinked ferociously) and partly in consequence of the intended 1849 extensions. A light roof over the line was provided where it passed near to timber stores or shipping, because of the anticipated fire risk from locomotive sparks. It then became possible to travel directly between intermediate stations, without a detour by way of a terminus.