Newcastle & Carlisle Railway

The Newcastle & Carlisle Railway (N&CR) was an English railway company formed in 1825 that built a line from Newcastle upon Tyne on Britain's east coast, to Carlisle, on the west coast. The railway began operating mineral trains in 1834 between Blaydon and Hexham, and passengers were carried for the first time the following year. The rest of the line opened in stages, completing a through route between Carlisle and Gateshead, south of the River Tyne in 1837. The directors repeatedly changed their intentions for the route at the eastern end of the line, but finally a line was opened from Scotswood to a Newcastle terminal in 1839. That line was extended twice, reaching Newcastle Central station in 1851.

A branch line was built to reach lead mines around Alston, opening from Haltwhistle in 1852.

For many years the line ran trains on the right-hand track on double line sections. In 1837 a station master on the line, Thomas Edmondson, introduced pre-printed numbered pasteboard dated by a press, a huge advance on the former system of individual hand-written tickets; in time his system achieved near-universal adoption worldwide.

The N&CR was absorbed by the larger North Eastern Railway in 1862. Today the Tyne Valley Line follows much of the former N&CR route between the two cities, but the Alston branch has closed.

Carlisle was an important commercial centre, but as late as the eighteenth century transport was limited. It is situated on the River Eden at the head of the Solway Firth, but both those waterways suffered from shoaling and sandbanks, frustrating the potential for maritime traffic. A number of canal schemes had been put forward, but a route to navigable water was not simple, and led to plans for a canal to cross to the eastern seaboard: a Tyne - Solway Canal. William Chapman surveyed a scheme for the canal, and published details of a route in 1795.

The scheme was controversial, but gained enough support to be presented to Parliament in the 1797 session, but met opposition there and was withdrawn.

After 1815 ideas of a canal were revived, and a much shorter canal from Bowness to Carlisle was promoted. In 1819 it received Parliamentary authorisation, and it opened in 1823; Bowness was retitled Port Carlisle; the canal was large enough to carry small ships.

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