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 a horse-drawn vehicle, lasting until 1914.
History
The Carlisle Canal
Construction and early years 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.
The Newcastle–Maryport canal project was abandoned in 1797, and when talk of a canal was revived in 1807, it was a Carlisle-led project aimed at giving cheaper transport of raw materials into Carlisle (although the profitable possibility of the canal forming part of a Newcastle-Irish Sea link was never entirely forgotten). The project lapsed, but was revived in 1817 when lack of cheap water transport was thought to be stifling the development of industry in the city; a number of cotton mills had been established in Carlisle, and the owner of the biggest of these reported in 1817 that he was spending £10,000 a year on land transport (and hoped that a canal would halve his transport costs). By August 1818, the inhabitants of Carlisle had subscribed for £30,000 of shares; Lord Lonsdale observed that this was done more for the general benefit than for private gain (although it was predicted that the canal would be profitable). The promoters (amongst whom Carlisle's two MPs were prominent) had decided that – even if cost of construction were no object – Fisher's Cross (on the Solway just short of Bowness) was preferable to Maryport as the western terminus of the canal. The inhabitants of Wigton had urged instead the claims of a canal passing Wigton and ending at Silloth Bay 'a point of SOLWAY FIRTH, to which Vessels of very considerable Burthen can have Access at all Times, and Anchor in Safety'Advertisement: but this option was not pursued. Thomas Telford had been consulted in 1808 and concurred with the choice of Fisher's Cross as the western terminus: 'The shore is here well calculated for an entrance, and the general form of the shores of the Frith promises to keep this point always clear'letter dated Carlisle, Feb. 6, 1808 printed as
The canal company's act of Parliament, the Carlisle Canal Act 1819 (59 Geo. 3. c. xiii), was passed in April 1819, and on 12 March 1823 the finished canal opened. It was 11¼ miles long, running from a basin in Carlisle to the Solway Firth at Fisher's Cross, which was renamed Port Carlisle. The depth of water in the canal was 2.6 metres (8 ft 6inches, and at the entrance from the Solway there was 2.75 metres, 9 ft of water, even at neap low tides). A contemporary map shows the course of the canal, with six locks along it;: lock arrangements at the sea entrance are not shown and may account for the eight locks quoted by some written sources these were 5.7 metres (18 ft 8inches) wide and 22.1 metres (72 ft 6inches) long:according to ; other newspaper accounts give slightly different dimensions and sea-going vessels of up to 100 tons could use the canal to reach Carlisle. Whereas the promoters had projected 70,000 tons a year of merchandise to pass along the canal, and this to generate just under £8,000 annual revenue, about 13,000 tons of merchandise passed along the canal in its first year of operation, generating about £1400 revenue: furthermore it became evident that modifications were needed and £6,000 would have to be borrowed to pay for them. The design of the sea entrance was then found to be defective, and expensive remedial work necessary; by 1826 the company's borrowings were £23,000, and the shareholders authorised the borrowing of another £12,000.
The railways reach Carlisle
The frequently projected Newcastle-Carlisle canal was never built. Instead the engineer surveying for the best line for a canal recommended that a railway be built: the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway's act of Parliament, the Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Carlisle Railway Act 1829 (10 Geo. 4. c. lxxii), received royal assent in 1829, and the first stretch of railway at the western end (and the first passenger line in Cumbria) opened into Carlisle on 19 July 1836.Roger Darsley and Dennis Lovett, Carlisle to Hawick, Middleton Press, Midhurst, 2010 The temporary eastern terminus of this line was at Greenhead; more accurately at Blenkinsopp Colliery.David Joy, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Volume 14: The Lake Counties, David and Charles, Newton Abbot, 1993, Coal from pits at Midgeholme and Blenkinsop could now be delivered to Carlisle by railway, and the import of coal to Carlisle by the canal (one of the initial reasons for its construction) was no longer economic. However an extension of the N&CR from London Road Junction to the canal basin opened on 9 March 1837, giving the possibility of using the canal for outward shipment of coal (including, after the completion of the N&CR as far as Gateshead in 1838, Tyneside coal and coke for Ireland and Irish Sea ports).
There was a greater depth of water at the entrance to the canal than at the entrance to Maryport harbour, but the problems of navigation in the upper Solway meant that sailing ships were more dependent on favourable winds to reach Port Carlisle. The annual shareholders' meeting in 1826 was told that "it often happened that the navigation was stopped for six, seven, or nine weeks together by the prevalence of adverse winds"; this problem had held back the use of the canal for valuable goods (where the cost of adequate buffer stocks would be prohibitive) but was now obviated by a weekly steam packet service to and from Liverpool. This was not a complete solution: the canal had not been designed to take steamships, there was not enough depth of water at low tide at the harbour mouth to keep large steamships afloat, and the heavy machinery in steamships made them much less tolerant of grounding when the tide went out. The company therefore sought an act of Parliament authorising the construction of a 'floating dock' (i.e. not a dock that floated, but a wet dock with lock gates to retain sufficient depth of water that ships in the dock remained afloat) at the canal mouth. The prospect of this (and the fact that some canal company directors were also directors of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway) helped the N&CR to decide against active involvement in the promotion of a railway from Carlisle to Maryport. Although the act of Parliament, the Port Carlisle Dock Act 1836 (6 & 7 Will. 4. c. lx) was obtained (royal assent 7 June 1836) the 'floating dock' at Port Carlisle was never built.
For the time being the canal profited from the railway connection (in July 1838 a dividend of 3% was declared, receipts July 1837–June 1838 being 33% higher than the previous year; in July 1839 a further 24% increase in revenue and a dividend of 4% was announced), The subsequent arrival of other railways in Carlisle, however, was bad news for the canal. The completion of the Maryport and Carlisle Railway in 1845 gave an alternative outlet for Tyne coal via the port of Maryport. After the completion of the Whitehaven Junction Railway in 1847 the West Cumbrian ports had the advantage of offering a return cargo: Tyne coal could be shipped via Whitehaven and the emptied waggons used to carry Cumberland iron ore back to Tyneside. In 1848-9 both the Newcastle and Carlisle and the Maryport and Carlisle were under the control of George Hudson, and Tyne coal was accordingly routed to West Cumbrian ports. The arrival in Carlisle of the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway in 1846 gave the possibility of reliable rail transport of high-value goods from Liverpool to Carlisle (with the L&C offering a substantial rebate for exclusivity). For passenger transport to Liverpool, steamers were still cheaper than railways, but travel via Maryport was four hours quicker than via Port Carlisle, and the fare was the same. The opening of the Glasgow, Dumfries and Carlisle Railway between Dumfries and Carlisle in August 1848 meant that for this traffic Port Carlisle was also competing with Annan Waterfoot, a superior Solway anchorage now easily reached by rail.
The channel of the Eden moved away from the canal entrance; from May 1849 the Liverpool steamers were unable to approach the port but had to land their passengers at Annan. and there were concerns that even the small boats which could use the canal would soon be unable to enter it from the Solway. The canal company thought the problem was caused by a jetty erected by Lord Lonsdale at Raven Bank, about 2 km upstream of the canal entrance, but it took time to convince Lord Lonsdale of this and persuade him to remove the jetty at the company's expense; not until the autumn of 1851 was this done, the Carlisle Journal reporting 'the most rapid and beneficial results', but not until April 1852 were large steamers again able to use Port Carlisle harbour.
Because of capital expenditure on remedial engineering, the canal company had accumulated considerable debts; by the 1840s each £50 canal share had associated with it £52 of borrowings, interest on which had to be paid at 4½% before there was any question of a dividend being paid. By 1848, the canal had to reduce its charges to compete with the railways; however once interest was paid, the canal was barely profitable, and its bankers asked for a lien on company property. In 1849 and again in 1850 only 4% could be paid on the company's borrowings. in 1851 only 3%, in 1852 1%.Advertisement:
Port Carlisle Dock and Railway
Conversion to a railway