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The Lancaster and Carlisle Railway (L&CR) was a British railway company authorised on 6 June 1844 to build a line between Lancaster and Carlisle in NW England. The first sod was cut at Shap Summit (the highest point on the planned route: 914ft above sea level) in July 1844. The original intention was to build a single line, but in January the following year it was announced that the line would be double track.
The railways opened in two sections:
- 22 September 1846 Lancaster to Oxenholme, 20 miles. On the same day a branch line from Oxenholme to Kendal was opened, part of the Kendal & Windermere Railway (KWR). The latter was completed to Windermere 21 April 1847
- 17 December 1846 Oxenholme to Carlisle.
The line was built by Joseph Locke who had been surveying the possible routes between the two cities since 1836. George Stephenson had already surveyed other possible routes in 1835: one was to skirt the Cumberland coast. The main engineering features of the Railway are the bridge at Lancaster; three substantial viaducts; and a high embankment between Grayrigg and Low Gill. The embankment south of Tebay was laid in the bed of the River Lune, which had been diverted from its course.
The cutting at Shap Summit was cut through rock, is about 0.5 mile in length, and is between 50-60 feet in depth. The approach from the south, thirty miles away at Carnforth is in two sections:
- Carnforth to Grayrigg, 20 miles, the final five miles being at 1 in 131/1 in 106
- Grayrigg to Shap Summit: the first five miles to Tebay relatively level, followed by five miles at 1 in 75
The approach from the north is again of thirty miles:
- Carlisle to beyond Penrith, twenty miles at varying gradients between 1 in 131/1 in 228
- thence to Shap Summit, ten miles mainly at 1 in 125
The L&CR was connected to the south with the Lancaster and Preston Junction Railway a mile to the south of the town; the new station Lancaster Castle. In the north, trains ran into Carlisle (Citadel, opened on 1 September 1847.
In 1859 the L&CR was leased to the London and North Western Railway; it became part of the latter in 1879; after 1923 the LMSR. It now forms part of the West Coast Main Line.
Information for this article came from The Railway Magazine article on the railway, August 1951
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