[Roger Farnworth]

Our long holiday in 2022 was spent in the far North of Scotland. We stopped off to break the return journey close to Carlisle at a B&B in a hamlet called Boustead Hill adjacent to the Solway Firth.

This gave me an opportunity to find out more about the Port Carlisle Branch which was built on the line of the old canal between Carlisle and Port Carlisle.

The Port Carlisle Railway – Part 1

The Canal and the Railway that replaced it. The Carlisle to Port Carlisle Canal opened in 1823. It was approximately 11 miles long. It linked the city of Carlisle to the Solway Firth. [1] Prior to …

rogerfarnworth.com

 

[Roger Farnworth]

For around fifty years the passenger rail service to Port Carlisle was provided by a a horse drawn dandy carriages. ....

One of these Dandy carriages is preserved in the National Railway Museum in York.

The linked article focusses on this horse-drawn service. ....

The Port Carlisle Railway – Part 2

 

[Roger Farnworth]

After 1914 and the reintroduction of steam power on the branch, there was a short period during the later part of the First World War when the line to Port Carlisle was closed. When it reopened, the hoped for increased passenger traffic never materialised. As the 1920s wore on, the LNER decided that it would replace locomotive power on the branch with steam railcars.

The first was 'Nettle', the second, 'Flower of Yarrow'.

The Port Carlisle Railway – Part 3

Sadly, their introduction did not significantly improve the financial position and the length of the line from Drumburgh to Port Carlisle was closed in 1932. .....

 

[kristopher1805]

Always interesting your features on the minor railways of the UK and sometimes elsewhere, just wondered off beat a little do you ever come across the Rishworth branch and the proposed tunnel from Cunning Corner to Smithy Bridge near Littleborough, I went to school close to the branch and have always been interested as to why it was twin track from Sowerby Btidge and Rishworth being built as a through station, apparently it cut 17 miles off the trip to Manchester which went/goes through Todmorden and summit Tunnel.

 

[Roger Farnworth]

Hi, thank you for the kind words. I am sorry I have not done any investigation of the line that you mention. I have now moved away from the Manchester Area, so I am unlikely to be able to give focus to a line in the area beyond Rochdale.