Penrith and the Midland Railway

[Alex TM]

Hi everyone,

 

This is more out of idle curiousity rather than with a model in mind.

 

While sitting looking at the Railway Junction Diagram book for 1914, and after several short breaks in the area where I could see some of the remaining infrastructure, I wondered if the Midland ever had plans to gain access to Penrith.  From the book I can see that the station was on the LNW mainline, with a junction with the CK&P; I also see that the NE also came close (Eaumant Bridge Junc to Red Hills Junc.).  I also know that the Midland did connect with the NE at Appleby.

 

Any information would be helpful.

 

Thanks and regards,

 

Alex.

[Compound2632]

The Midland did gain access to Penrith as a result of an agreement with the London & North Western in July 1910, by running trains between Leeds and Carlisle via Ingleton, Low Gill and Tebay rather than the Settle & Carlisle. The trains involved were the 10am from Leeds to Scotland (a 5am departure from St Pancras) and the 10:30am from Edinburgh. The main object was to provide an improved service to Keswick and the northern Lake District from the major East Midland cities - South Lakeland was already well-served thanks to the Midland's connection to the Furness Railway via Carnforth. The down train ran non-stop from Leeds to Penrith which must have had made for interesting locomotive work - a 15mph slack over the sharp curve and junction at Low Gill followed by the short run up the Lune Gorge to attack Shap. The train seems to have been five carriages and a brake van, including a pair of dining carriages - a light train compared to the usual west coast expresses! It's said the Midland enginemen laughed at Shap compared to the gruelling 15 miles of 1:100 up from Settle to Blea Moor.

 

At around the same time the Midland started running through to Llandudno from Sheffield via Buxton and started a joint service between Manchester London Road and Bournemouth - the precursor of the celebrated Pines Express.

 

I know that's not quite what the OP had in mind. Peter Baughan's The Midland Railway North of Leeds (from which the above information is gleaned) details various proposals or requests for the Midland to build a line to Penrith none of which came to anything - as noted any such line would duplicate the ex-Stockton and Darlington line; Baughan doesn't describe any through passenger traffic by that route from Appleby. North of Leeds is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the railway history of that area.

[Alex TM]

Hi Stephen,

 

Thanks for that full and helpful answer.  Looks like Carnforth, etc, will be worth looking up the RJD book too.   I'll make a note of the 'North of Leeds' book, and have a look for it when I am next in some of the transport bookshops.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

[Compound2632]

Out of print, I think - first published 1966, 2nd edition (which I have) 1987. But there are cheap second-hand copies around, even on Amazon.

[jamie92208]

I need to dig out my copy of 'North of Leeds' but think that there were much earlier connections to Penrith via Ingleton and Tebay prior to the building of the S & C.   It was the Midland's route to Scotland till 1876. I suspect that there were services of some kind from the time the Ingleton Low Gill line was completed.

 

Jamie

 

PS.

I never realised that there had been a 2nd edition, I'll have to look out for a copy.

Edited July 20, 2018 by jamie92208

[The Stationmaster]

A quick reference to the Railway Junction Diagrams, 1914 edition can be found here -

 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Railways_Junctions_Diagram_1914

 

Regrettably this is just the diagrams, which are clearly interesting and useful in their own right, but it does not include the even more interesting section of the original publication which listed, by company, all recorded official Running Powers although it obviously could not include mileage balancing agreements which also led to locos and stock running over the lines of 'foreign' companies.

[Alex TM]

Hi again,

 

Thanks for the suggestion Mike.  As said earler, I have the 1914 book; the problem with it is that it always answers one question by adding a handful more!  My wife has even had a look at it to see what the railways were like where she grew up.  I wonder if anyone has ever considered compiling a railway atlas of lines that were considered as well as those built?  It could be a rather large, and possibly complex, volume.

 

Again, thanks for the input.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.