Saturday 26 January 2013

The Solway Junction Railway


Opened: 1869

Closed: 1921



The central section of the Solway Junction Railway was one of the last railways to close before the grouping of 1923, with the final train traversing the route in 1921. Intended as a means of moving iron ore from Cumbria to the foundries of central Scotland, the line opened in 1869. Previously, trains had to run via Carlisle, and the new line provided a far more direct route for the traffic.

Branching off from the Caledonian Railway main line from Carlisle to Glasgow at Kirtlebridge, the line headed south via a station at Annan Shawhill, crossing the Glasgow and South Western Railway main line before bridging the Solway Firth. The Solway viaduct was by far the most notable feature of the route, a remarkable piece of engineering over a mile long, when the bridges over the Forth and the Tay further north were still many years away. Taking over three years to build, the viaduct incorporated 193 iron spans, as well as causeways from both shores of the Solway Firth, and ran 34 feet above the water level. Entering England at Bowness, the line had a station at Whitrigg before Joining the Carlisle and Silloth Bay Railway for several miles. The Solway Junction then left this line at Abbey Junction, heading south through Bromfield station before ending with a junction with the Maryport and Carlisle Railway at Brayton.



The design of bridges of this length was still in its infancy however, and problems emerged due to ice in 1875, when water entered the hollow columns and subsequently froze, cracking the ironwork. Worse damage occurred six years later, when a buildup of ice on the Firth broke up during a thaw and was driven into the structure by a powerful ebb tide, destroying 45 piers. The damage was repaired, but the iron ore trade that the line had been built to exploit was in decline. By 1895, the Caledonian Railway took over the English section of the line, having aquired the Scottish section in 1873.

Before the First World War, concerns over the condition of the viaduct led to restrictions in the size of engine that could be used, but the war brought an increase in goods traffic - although passenger services were withdrawn on January 1st 1917, a date when many little used passenger services across Great Britain were suspended. They resumed on the line in 1920, but the following year the viaduct was condemned, and all traffic ceased over it. Passenger and freight trains ran on the Scottish section as far as Annan until 1931; the English section lost passenger services when the viaduct closed, but freight between Abbey Junction and Brayton lingered on until 1933, and half a mile between Annan station and a spur on the Glasgow and South Western line lasted until the 1950s.

Most of the viaduct was removed in 1937; however, stumps of the piers remained, and caused damage to boats in the firth until they were completely removed. Today, much of the route is tracable on the Scottish side, even though the town of Annan has expanded round the route. The survival of this trackbed is down to the Chapelcross Nuclear Power Station, as between there and the firth a pipe carrying waste water has been laid along the old route, and past Annan Shawhill station, which survives as a private house.

At the northern extremity of the English section at the and of the causeway, one complete iron pier and some stumps survive in situ, rusted through in places but still defiantly standing nearly a century since they carried their last train. The station buildings at Bowness and Bromfield still survive (the latter much altered), but much of this half of the line has been absorbed back into fields.

Solway Junction Railway at Cumbria Railways

The viaduct today at Visit Cumbria

Annan Shawhill Station at Disused Stations








1 comment:

  1. Harrah's Casino Hotel - Mapyro
    Find Harrah's Casino 울산광역 출장샵 Hotel (Harrah's) location in Atlantic City, NJ. 세종특별자치 출장마사지 See map for Harrah's 경주 출장마사지 Casino 광주광역 출장샵 Hotel in the area 안양 출장샵 and other vital information.

    ReplyDelete