Эден аңғары темір жолының тарихы

Former railway
the original Eden Valley railway that opened in 1862 and closed in 1989

The Eden Valley Railway (EVR) was a railway in Cumbria, England. It ran between Clifton Junction near Penrith and Kirkby Stephen via Appleby in Westmorland. Passenger traffic ended in 1962 and the line was reduced to the track between the junction at Appleby station with the Settle Carlisle Line and Kirkby Stephen which served a quarry. By 1976 all that was left was 6 mile (10 km) of track between Appleby in Westmorland and Flitholme. It was used by infrequent British Army services to Warcop Training Area until 1989. In 1995 the Eden Valley Railway Society was formed with the aim of reinstating services and restoring on the line. Heritage railway services resumed in 2006 between Warcop and Sandford, with an extension of being opened in 2013, giving a current running line of almost .

Prior to the construction of the Eden Valley Railway, in the 1840s, several schemes had been proposed which would have run to the Eden Valley; one was the York & Carlisle Junction Railway, backed by the Great North of England Railway, which would have run from Northallerton to Barnard Castle then across the Pennines to Kirkby Stephen, after which two branches would have been formed to connect with the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway; one to Tebay and the other to Clifton. Another similar scheme was the Northumberland & Lancashire Union which would have run from Gateshead near Newcastle upon Tyne to Barnard Castle, and then as the York & Carlisle line across the Pennines via Kirkby Stephen to Tebay. but the end of the Railway bubble of the 1840s meant that they were not built. It was not until the late 1850s that a line through the Eden Valley was proposed again. Firstly a new trans Pennine railway line was proposed, reviving the earlier schemes; the South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway (SD&LUR) was to run from the Stockton and Darlington Railway to Kirkby Stephen and then to Tebay. A second line, the Eden Valley Railway would branch from the first at Kirkby Stephen and then go to Clifton via the upper Eden Valley. The main purpose of these lines was freight, not passengers; bringing higher grade iron ore from Cumberland and Lancashire to the blast furnaces of the North East, and coal and coke from the mines of Durham to the northwest of England. The route was shorter than the alternative, the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway. The act of Parliament authorising South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway was passed on 13 July 1857, and that for the Eden Valley Railway came soon after on 21 May 1858. The act allowed the raising a capital of £180,000, the appointed directors of the company include important figures from Westmorland and Cumberland including William Brougham, Sir Richard Tufton Isaac Wilson as well as Henry Pease.

Construction of the 22 mile (35 km) line was contracted to Messrs. Lawton Brothers of Newcastle, the turning of the sod ceremony took place on 4 August 1858 with Lord Brougham. Most of the stone for the railway's stations was quarried near Cliburn. The cost of construction had been £204,803 0s 8d of three 63 feet (19 m) lattice girder iron spans. Next was the minor Musgrave station to the west of the village of Great Musgrave. The line then curved to the northwest towards Warcop and after reached Warcop station. From Warcop the line continued northwest along the Eden valley north of the Eden crossing Coupland Beck after by a viaduct, and then continued to Appleby about after Warcop station. running northwest from Appleby the railway reached Kirkby Thore station, then just over west northwest to Temple Sowerby station south of the village of the same name. The river Eden was crossed once more at Skygarth viaduct which had four lattice girders each of 98 feet (30 m), whence the line ran roughly west to Cliburn railway station north of the village of Cliburn. The line then continued west, and curved south on a chord connecting it to a north facing junction near Clifton, Cumbria connecting the line to Clifton and Lowther station on the Lancaster & Carlisle Railway. The line was built as a single track line and was worked by the Stockton and Darlington Railway from its inception, it opened for mineral trains on 8 April 1862, and for passengers on 9 June the same year. The following year the Stockton and Darlington merged into the North Eastern Railway, and the Eden Valley line too became part of that larger system. During the construction of the railway, in 1861, an act of Parliament was passed that would increase the importance of the Eden Valley Line. This was the act permitting the construction of the Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway, which by 1865 had been opened. It connected to the Cockermouth and Workington Railway, and hence the ports and industrialised iron rich regions of the west Cumbrian coast (Workington, Whitehaven) were linked to the Lancaster and Carlisle line (operated by the London and North Western Railway) near Penrith close to the Eden Valley's own junction. This made the Eden Valley line a route of choice for transport of materials between the north east and north west of England. During the 1870s the Settle and Carlisle Railway was being constructed, which also ran through the upper Eden Valley. West of the station in Appleby in Westmorland a junction with the Eden Valley railway was built allowing trains travelling north to cross onto the westbound Eden Valley line. Further west the Settle line crossed over the Eden Valley line.

Between 1923 and 1948 the line was part of the London and North Eastern Railway.

In 1948 the railways of Britain were nationalised and the line became part of British Railways. In the following decade several stations closed: Musgrave station in 1952, Kirkby Thore in 1953, Temple Sowerby closed to passengers in 1953, and Cliburn station in 1956. In 1958 a two car diesel multiple unit service was introduced. The line from Clifton to Appleby was also closed, and, from 1963 points east of Appleby could only be reached via the junction with the Settle and Carlisle railway at Appleby. Freight trains still ran from Appleby to Kirkby Stephen and then to Hartley Quarry In 1974 that service ended and the track was removed except for about between Appleby and Warcop. Trains for the Warcop Training Area north of Warcop village ran until 1989. Clifton Moor, Cliburn, Temple Sowerby and Warcop and Musgrave railway stations are now private residences. Other features including the signal boxes at Cliburn and Warcop have survived. The bridges at Musgrave and Skygarth have been removed. The former junction west of Kirkby Stephen with the line to Tebay is now a nature reserve.