The 5.25-mile (8.45km) line was built primarily for use by mineral trains carrying coke and iron ore from County Durham to various ironworks in and around Barrow-in-Furness which had previously had to travel (and reverse) via the busy junction at Carnforth.[3][4] The branch was opened to goods traffic on 3 June 1876[5] and also carried a passenger service between Grange-over-Sands and Kendal known locally as the Kendal Tommy.[6] Both the Furness Railway, and the Midland Railway, considered building a line from Hincaster Junction to Garsdale (Hawes Junction) on the Settle–Carlisle line to connect with the Wensleydale Railway, in an effort to shorten the route for coke trains, and to prevent the traffic having to use the main line section between Tebay and Oxenholme. It was noted that this line would a challenge as "considerable tunnelling" would be required.[7][8]
Due to the railway rising from Sandside where it was at sea level to 200 feet (61m) in under 2 miles (3.2km) (a constant gradient of 1-in-50), the coke traffic still travelled for reversals at Carnforth. Heavier traffic at Carnforth during the First World War prompted the railway company to employ adequate motive power for the trains to use the Hincaster branch.[9]
Closure
The passenger service ended on 4 May 1942 and the track between Sandside and Hincaster Junction was lifted in 1966 (through traffic having ceased three years earlier).[10][9] A short stub from Arnside to Sandside lasted until 1972 to serve local quarries.[11]
Sections of the old trackbed survive and are used as a footpath and cycleway, though the viaduct and both intermediate stations have been demolished.
↑ "North country news - Midland Railway extension". Northern Echo. No.4283. 6 November 1883. p.3. OCLC6685296.
↑ "Railway developments in Furness and Westmorland". The Glasgow Herald. No.265. 5 November 1894. p.4. OCLC10888009. The scheme which is now under consideration is for the construction of a line from Hincaster, a few miles south of Kendal, a station on the Furness Line[sic], to Hawes, and so obtain a direct connection with Darlington. The undertaking would be a somewhat expensive one, as considerable tunnelling would be required. At present, all the coke for Barrow, Askham, Ulverston, and Millom, has to be brought via Tebay and Carnforth.
1 2 Bairstow, Martin (1995). Railways in the Lake District. Halifax: Bairstow. p.87. ISBN1871944112.
↑ Robinson, Peter (2002). Cumbria's lost railways. Catrine: Stenlake. p.9. ISBN1840332050.
↑ Broughton, John; Harris, Nigel (1985). British railways past and present No. 1; Cumbria. Peterborough: Past and present. p.81. ISBN0-9479-7104-1.
References
Conolly, W.P. [1958](1997) British Railways Pre-Grouping Atlas and Gazetteer, 5th Ed., Shepperton: Ian Allan, ISBN0-7110-0320-3.
Marshall, J (1981) Forgotten Railways - North-West England, David & Charles (Publishers) Ltd, Newton Abbott, ISBN0-7153-8003-6.
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