Port Carlisle Railway Company

There were two interlinked railways on the south shore of the Solway Firth.

The Port Carlisle Dock and Railway Company was opened in 1854, following the route of a former canal, intended to connect Port Carlisle, to which sea-going ships could navigate, with the city of Carlisle.

The Carlisle and Silloth Bay Railway and Dock Company was built as an extension of the Port Carlisle line, opening in 1856, because silting of the Solway was making Port Carlisle unusable.

The two railways operated collaboratively, but neither was successful financially and insolvency seemed inevitable. However the North British Railway (NBR) was building the line that became the Waverley Route from Edinburgh to Carlisle. The established railways at Carlisle obstructed the NBR's intended access, so the NBR leased the Port Carlisle and the Silloth companies, and connected with them at the Port Carlisle's station in Carlisle. The NBR sent goods traffic for English destinations on to Silloth and by coastal shipping from there, by-passing the competing companies' obstruction. Irish and other destinations were served as well, and the maritime trade developed well. The NBR also improved Silloth as a holiday resort, and it became popular.

However, from 1879 the NBR made an alliance with the Midland Railway and traffic to England over that line became dominant, and Port Carlisle and Silloth were no longer of strategic value. Local traffic other than the seasonal holiday trade was insignificant and decline was inevitable. the Port Carlisle line closed to passenger traffic in 1932 and the entire network closed in 1964.

The Port Carlisle branch from Drumburgh was notable because passenger trains were operated by horse-drawn vehicle, lasting until 1914.

The city of Carlisle is located on the River Eden, which enters the Solway Firth about five miles north-west at Sandsfield, The river is not navigable, and the upper Solway is largely sandbanks, but the Eden gives a navigable channel which lies close to the English shore from Sandsfield almost to Bowness-on-Solway. The valley of the river Irthing a tributary of the Eden gives a low-level route via the Tyne Gap to the valley of the South Tyne and Carlisle thus stands at an important point for both north-south and east-west communications. The earliest proposals for an improved link from Carlisle to the sea were as part of a bigger project; a canal linking Newcastle-upon-Tyne with the Irish Sea proposed in the 1790s. This was originally intended to enter the sea at Sandsfield, but Maryport was later chosen as the planned western terminus in order to avoid the difficulties of navigation in the upper Solway.

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