Great Western Coffee Shop

I noted "Era 4" on a locomotive during some research this evening ... and kinda guessed it related to what ran with what - for example seeing an original liveried HST power car with an IET wouldn't look right on a layout.  Anyway - very interesting to see how eras have got shorter and shorter (didn't find a complete list anywhere - had to cut and paste

Era 1 Pioneering (1804 - 1874)
Era 2 Pre-grouping (1875 - 1922)
Era 3 The Big Four - LMS GWR LNER & SR:1923-1947 1923-1947
Era 4 BR steam Early Crest:1948-1956 1948-1956
Era 5 BR steam Late Crest:1957-1966 1957-1966
Era 6 BR Corporate Blue Pre-TOPS:1967-1971 1967-1971
Era 7 BR Corporate Blue Post-TOPS (1972 - 1982)
Era 8 BR Sectorisation:1983-1994 1983-1994
Era 9 Initial Privatisation:1995-2004 1995-2004
Era 10 Rebuilding of the Railways (2005 - 2015)
Era 11 Current Era (2016 - 2026)

Apparently there are bus era too ...

I suppose it's all down to politics and the structure of the railways, not to mention the chancellor's purse strings, to even begin to guess the era post 2026.

Its all down to politics.  The other things follow from that. 

If the right wing of the Tory Party seize that party and take power, then we are back to managed or unmanaged decline as roads are built to provide capacity for the private car and the Lorry, that suit their ideological world view. 

If the left take power then we are probably looking at something like we have at the moment with publically owned TOCs. 

If we oscillate between the two its anybody's guess.

I would add to more

Era 1825 1840 first public railways
Era 1840 1874 unbridled unregulated expansion 

Which gives 13!