THE RAILWAY SYSTEM AROUND CARLISLE

The first railways in Britain were often in direct competition with the canal network and railways were developed to transport raw materials like coal and quarried stone from the extraction sites to industrial centres and to coastal ports for onward distribution. The first commercial railway line was the Stockton and Darlington Railway, opened in 1825 with steam haulage, with horse transport considered as a back up. This was intended as an industrial line, but it was soon realised that there was a call for passenger service. The first passenger line was the Manchester and Liverpool Railway, opened in 1830, with the famous locomotive 'The Rocket' as the accepted principal design for haulage. Carlisle already had a canal going from the Canal Basin situated at the West of the city to Port Carlisle - a small sea port specially built on the Solway Firth for the onward transport of coals from mines at Brampton, East of the city and even cotton goods manufactured in Carlisle and it was also an import route for raw materials. The canal was opened in 1823, and plans were made to extend the canal through the Tyne gap to Newcastle. But that particular development was not to be! By the end of the decade parliamentary authorisation had been granted for a railway from Carlisle to Newcastle. The first part of the route was opened in 1835 and the whole route was completed in 1838 to London Road station on the East side of Carlisle, with an extension to the canal basin for coal traffic. This line from Newcastle was, I think, the first trans Pennine route to be opened. The Newcastle and Carlisle Railway (NCR) railway was absorbed by the North Eastern Railway (NER) in 1863

The next line into Carlisle was the Maryport and Carlisle Railway. Maryport had been developed as a seaport, particularly for the transport of coal from the West Cumberland coalfield, with Ireland being a key destination. Once again the line was opened in sections, reaching Carlisle in 1843 with a station in Bog Street, and opened throughout some two years later.

Tthe Lancaster and Carlisle Railway (LCR) reached the city in December 1846. Efffectively this railway became part of the London North Western Railway (LNWR) from 1856. At the time of opening there was a crossing of lines on the level to the South of the station with the goods line to the Canal crossing the LCR route - a recipe for disaster.

To the North the Caledonian Railway (CR)was building routes from Glasgow and Edinburgh via Carstairs, Beattock and Lockerbie. The southern end from Carlisle to Beattock opened in 1847, with the full opening up of the routes the following year.

Meanwhile in Scotland the West coast rival to the Caledonian was pioneering an alternative route via Mauchline and Dumfries. The railway, later to be known as the Glasgow and South Western Railway (GSWR), gained running powers from Carlisle to Gretna using Caledonian metals. The first section to open was from Gretna Junction to Dumfries, with the route opening right through in 1850.

Meanwhile, after a time of prosperity, the Carlisle Canal was under pressure because of the route to the sea through the Maryport and Carlisle Railway. Port Carlisle was well up the Solway Firth and had problems from the sands on the Firth. Eventually the line was converted from canal to a railway in 1854, and then exteneded to Silloth, built specially as a terminus and port, much further out on the Firth, virtually on open sea. This was opened in 1859. In due course the railway to Silloth was taken over by the North British Railway (see below). This route to Silloth was the only railway wholly in England to be owned by a Scottish railway company. Its other claim to fame is that even in the 20th century a horse drawn Dandy Cart was used on the section from Drumburgh (Drumbruff) to Port Carlisle, the original terminus of the Canal. With the closure of this short section (1920's?) the dandy cart was preserved. It can now be seen in the National Railway Museum in York.

Again in Scotland there came more competition for the Caledonian. This came in the form of the North British Railway (NBR) which had opened a line from Edinburgh to Hawick in the Scottish Borders. This was eventually extended to Carlisle in sections by 1862 with a short branch from Riddings Junction to Langholm being opened in 1864. This was the Waverley route, taking its name from the writings of Sir Walter Scott who lived at Abbotsford, in the heart of the area served by the line.

The last railway to reach Carlisle was in competition with the LNWR. The Midland Railway (MR)had its eyes on the Scottish traffic. As a result of obstructiveness by the LNWR it decided to build a line from Settle which it had already reached, through to Carlisle. This was eventually achieved 1876. It formed partnerships with the NBR for a route to Edinburgh and with the GSWR for a route to Glasgow.

Thus the basic pattern for Carlisle as a railway centre was established. Each railway had its own loco shed, its own goods warehouse and its own marshalling yard / freight yard. For a short time the system was grossly overloaded, with far too much traffic using the station and what freight lines there were. In the 1870's and early 1880's there were major changes to the station layout and in the provision of Goods Avoiding Lines, so that when the process was completed there were vitually no goods trains running through the station. By a series of triangular juctions all routes had access to the station and to all other routes with freight passing under the main passenger lines to the South of the station and was separated by alternative routes to the North of the Station. Through North / South freight ran side by side with the passenger lines from Caldew Junction northwards. Apart for some additions during World War 2, the lines around Carlisle stayed as they were until 1969 with the closure of the Waverley route. Further rationalisation occurrred with the building of the large Kingmoor marshalling yard and the subsequent closure of most of the smaller goods depots.

In 1923 there came about the Groupings when there was a compulsory amalgamation of almost every standard gauge railway company in Great Britain to form the Big Four. Carlisle was affected in that the LNWR, CR, GSWR, MR and the MCR became part of the London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS). The NER and the NBR were absorbed into the London North Eastern Railway (LNER). Little rationalisation of resources and operating procedures took place, it being limited to the closure of the loco shed of the GSWR, MCR and NER. The MR shed at Durranhil closed only to reopen in WW2 and remained open until about 1960. The goods handling systems remained with countless trip workings between the depots. Similarly, the loco operating procedures continued with Upperby shed providing loco crews for traffic heading South, Kingmoor crews went North on the Caley and Sou' Western routes and the Canal provided locos and crews for Newcastle and the Waverley routes.

The traffic and operational patterns which had been established by 1876 continued through to about the 1960's especially on the ex Midland, NBR and GSWR routes with loco changes at the station almost being the rule. Even the crack Royal Scot train which was timetabled as non - stop, came to a halt near the appropriate loco shed for a crew change - as evidenced in a couple of Eric Treacy's photographs at Upperby (I am not certain whether Down trains changed crews there or whether they went on to Kingmooor).

With the full introduction of diesel and later electric haulage the need for loco changes came to an end (except where diesel replaced electric or vice versa for traffic linking the West Coast Main Line (WCML) and the Midland route). However it took a while before loco crews signed on at the Citadel station rather than at Upperby or Kingmoor. With the decline in the need for loco changes there came a temporary end to Carlisle as a loco centre with the closure of Kingmooor as a traction depot, the last of seven sheds. It was later to be reopened when Direct Freight Services (DFS) took over the depot as a service and maintenance facility for its traction, initally serving the Sellafield nuclear plants in West Cumbria but also branching out into providing a wider range of services - hence the advantage of a base in Carlisle.

And so to the present. As a railway centre Carlisle is not the place it was in the first half of the 20th Century when the railways were a major employer in the city. It lost the Waverley route in 1969 and the Midland route was downgraded from being an express route to one serving Leeds and Carlisle and stations in between, together with being a freight route across the Pennines. The lines to Silloth and Langholm have both gone. However all the routes which were open in 1850 remain operational as does the Midland route - this had a close call even into the 1990's. The GSWR line is operated by ScotRail, the MCR by First North Western. The mainline expresses are run by the two Virgin companies and the NER route mainly by ARRIVA Trains Northern with some by ScotRail. The Midland route is also operated by ARRIVA Trains Northern The primary express routes services have changed tremendously in terms of speed and frequency, but the local routes run to a broadly similar pattern and speed as that of steam days except for the loss of early morning trains

Following a freight traffic accident in 1983 the North / South goods Avoiding Line was severed and subsequently closed and lifted. consequently y North / South freight traffic passes through the Citadel, although the Goods Avoiding Lines are still in operation for traffic on the the South and East routes. So every thing changes but somethings remain the same! (For more information on the Goods Avoiding Lines return to the Home page).