Windermere Branch Line

Windermere branch line
Windermere station in 2008.
Overview
System	National Rail
Status	Operational
Locale	Cumbria North West England
Operation
Owner	Network Rail
Operator(s)	Northern
Rolling stock	British Rail Class 153, British Rail Class 156, British Rail Class 185
Technical
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge

The Windermere branch line, also called the Lakes line is the railway line from Oxenholme to Kendal and Windermere in North West England.

The line has a loading gauge of W6.

The 10 mile (16 km) long line which opened on 20 April 1847 was originally built as the Kendal and Windermere Railway and at its southern end connected into the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway. In 1859 it became part of the London and North Western Railway, then the London, Midland and Scottish Railway at the 1923 Grouping. Upon nationalisation in 1948, it was managed by the London Midland Region of British Railways. Since 1994 and the privatisation of the British Rail network, it was operated by First North Western, then First TransPennine Express from 2005 and since April 2016 by Northern.

Originally built as a double-track main line, with through links to destinations as varied as Morecambe Euston Road, Preston, Manchester Exchange and London Euston, it was reduced to a single line branch in May 1973 when the West Coast Main Line (which it joins at Oxenholme) was re-signalled & electrified.Freight traffic to the last active depot at Kendal had previously ceased in 1972.