The railway over Shap is famous with steam enthusiasts, as
it climbs the 1 in 75 gradient over Shap Bank, a distance of
four miles. In an effort to aid heavy trains coming from the
south, banking engines were used from Tebay to the summit, 916
feet above sea level.
When the M6 motorway was built in the 1960’s, it took
men with modern machinery three years to construct the extension
of the M6 from Carnforth to Penrith, a distance of just 36 miles.
It cost in the region of £60,000,000.
More than a century earlier, men alone built the whole 70-mile
length of the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway in less than 2½ years
and at a total expense of £1,200,000. It was staggering
achievement.
Today it takes less than five hours to get from London to Glasgow
by rail. In 1838 the quickest way was by train to Liverpool,
then by boat to Ardrossan – a fourteen-hour sea journey – and
finally another train to Glasgow. By 1840 the railway had leapfrogged
forward as far as Lancaster. The next leap, however was to prove
the most difficult. Between Lancaster and Carlisle lay the mountains
and fells, the rivers and valleys of what we now call Cumbria.
The men who created the Lancaster and Carlisle railway have
gone down in history. George Stephenson, the Father of Railways,
spent long hours championing alternative routes.
Joseph Locke who set the civil engineering profession new standards
of accuracy, order and discipline, was the engineer. He gave
the contract for the work to Thomas Brassey, the greatest contractor
the world has ever known, built the twin lines of steel and controlled
up to 10,000 navvies. It was the beginning of a partnership that
was to take them all over the world building railways.
The proposed railway was first known as the ‘Caledonian
Railway, Section One’. The capital came from various sources.
The Grand Junction subscribed £250,000, the London and
Birmingham put forward £100,000, and the North Union and
the Lancaster and Preston Junction each gave £65,000. An
interesting provision was that one director was to be nominated
by the Earl of Lonsdale, so long as the Earl held £1,000
in his own name, the director was always to be a member of the
Lowther family or an M.P. for Westmorland or Cumberland.
Work commenced on Shap Fell on July 18 th 1844, when the
first sod was cut.
At the summit 350,000 cubic feet of earth were excavated.
At the end of 1844 there were 3,761 men and horses at work,
this number rose to 9,687 men and 1,025 horses in 1846.
Navvies who lost their lives are buried in Shap Churchyard
where a communal memorial records this.
By January 1845, the ground had been broken in 75 places,
and masonry of the great viaduct over the River Lowther was
well advanced.
The opening of the railway was on 15 th December 1846. The
day was unfavourable, but by 11a.m. a large crowd had gathered
in the old churchyard and terrace of the castle at Lancaster
to watch the train for the directors and 200 guests leave for
Carlisle. It was made up of six first-class carriages, and
at Penrith was met by another train from Carlisle containing
300 guests. Both trains proceeded to Carlisle to be met by
a huge crowd and the band of the Yeoman Cavalry. A banquet
was then given in the Athenaeum, and the following evening
it was Brassey’s turn to entertain directors and more
than 200 guests to dinner in the Assemble Room of the Crown
and Mitre Inn.
Construction of the Caledonian Railway to Glasgow was well
advanced, and was completed on February 15th 1848.
The railway became part of the London North Western Railway,
then London Midland Scottish, before British Rail, it now forms
part of Virgin’s West Coast Route with its distinctive
red trains – a long way from the days of steam.
Shap Station closed in 1968.
Article kindly written by Jean Scott-Smith May
2005
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