The Newcastle and Carlisle Railway (N&CR) (formally, the Newcastle upon Tyne and Carlisle Railway) was an English railway company formed in 1825 that built a line from Newcastle upon Tyne on Britain's east coast, to Carlisle, on the west coast. The railway began operating mineral trains in 1834 between Blaydon and Hexham, and passengers were carried for the first time the following year. The rest of the line opened in stages, completing a through route between Carlisle and Gateshead, south of the River Tyne in 1837. The directors repeatedly changed their intentions for the route at the eastern end of the line, but finally a line was opened from Scotswood to a Newcastle terminal in 1839. That line was extended twice, reaching the new Newcastle Central Station in 1851.
A branch line was built to reach lead mines around Alston, opening from Haltwhistle in 1852.
For many years the line ran trains on the right-hand track on double line sections. In 1837 a station master on the line, Thomas Edmondson, introduced pre-printed numbered pasteboard tickets dated by a press, a huge advance on the former system of individual hand-written tickets; in time his system achieved near-universal adoption worldwide.
The was absorbed by the larger North Eastern Railway in 1862. Today the Tyne Valley line follows much of the former route between the two cities, but the Alston branch has closed.
History of the route and construction Before railways Carlisle was an important commercial centre, but as late as the eighteenth century transport was limited. It is situated on the River Eden at the head of the Solway Firth, but both those waterways suffered from shoaling and sandbanks, frustrating the potential for maritime traffic. A number of canal schemes had been put forward, but a route to navigable water was not simple, and led to plans for a canal to cross to the eastern seaboard: a Tyne—Solway Canal. William Chapman surveyed a scheme for the canal, and published details of a route in 1795.Bill Fawcett, A History of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, 1824 to 1870, North Eastern Railway Association, 2008,
The scheme was controversial, but gained enough support to be presented to Parliament in the 1797 session, but met opposition there and was withdrawn.G Whittle, The Newcastle & Carlisle Railway, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1979,
After 1815 ideas of a canal were revived, and a much shorter canal from Bowness to Carlisle, the Carlisle Canal, was promoted. Legal powers to build it were granted by the Carlisle Canal Act 1819 (59 Geo. 3. c. xiii), and it opened in 1823; Bowness was retitled Port Carlisle; the canal was large enough to carry small ships.
First railway proposals
In 1805 William Thomas developed a scheme for a horse-operated plateway (in which the rails are L-shaped, with plain wagon wheels running on the flat part of the rail) between Newcastle and Hexham. This came to nothing, but collieries in the Newcastle area were increasingly turning to ideas of railways and locomotives, and when William Chapman returned to consider linking Newcastle upon Tyne and Carlisle in 1824, it was appropriate to consider a railway as a possible alternative to a canal. He planned to use his earlier canal route for a railway, substituting rope-worked inclined planes for the flights of locks, and found that a railway would be considerably cheaper than the equivalent canal: £252,000 against £888,000. Horse traction was still incorporated into Chapman's railway plans.
There were evidently doubts cast on the practicality of Chapman's railway scheme, for the promoters brought in Josias Jessop to give an opinion. He reported on 4 March 1825, stating that it would be appropriate to increase the construction estimate by £40,000 (later rounded to £300,000); the railway was still considerably cheaper than the canal alternative. Jessop also recommended a variation in the line of route.
A provisional committee met on 26 March 1825 and unanimously recommended proceeding with the railway option, and about £20,000 in share subscriptions were taken that evening. A prospectus and public invitation to subscribe was published on 28 MarchNewcastle Courant: 16 April 1825 The first meeting of the provisional Newcastle upon Tyne and Carlisle Rail-Road Company met on 9 April 1825; James Losh was elected chairman. A route was published on 12 November 1825. It ran from Carlisle to Newcastle quay, crossing over to the north side of the River Tyne at Scotswood and running on the north bank to Newcastle.
Chapman reported again in June 1825; he disparaged the locomotives available at the time:
They are objectionable in various ways. In the first place, gentlemen through whose estates or near whose residences they pass, object to their appearance and the noise and smoke rising from them. Whilst new, and on level planes, they possess advantages in expedition; but by their quick motion and that degree of shaking which cannot be avoided, they in the end require so much and frequent repairs as to render their advantage dubious; exclusive of their being unfitted to receive and discharge the carriages that are wanted to be taken forward, and sent off aside in such places of the line as do not coincide with their stages or feeding places.William Chapman, report to the Directors of the 16 June 1825, quoted in Whittle, page 14
A definite scheme
Plans for the line were submitted for a parliamentary bill in the 1826 session, but before any hearing determined opposition was experienced from two landed proprietors on the route, as well as from George Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle, who had extensive colliery interests near Brampton, and did not wish his near-monopoly to be disrupted. Moreover, George Stephenson, surveying an alternative route on the north side of the Tyne from Hexham eastwards, found serious errors in Chapman's route in the submitted plans; in addition, a number of bank failures had weakened confidence in the money market. Accordingly, the directors decided to withdraw the bill for the time being.
The opportunity was taken to recast the route at the Carlisle end, chiefly to accommodate the Earl of Carlisle's demands. The originally designed line between Carlisle and Gilsland had followed the Irthing Valley, but the new scheme took it south of that route on to high ground, requiring more challenging engineering features. At this period the intention was to open the railway as a toll road, in which any carrier might operate vehicles on the line on payment of a toll. Moreover, there was still a significant risk of implacable opposition from the proprietors of country houses, and the company voluntarily inserted a clause into the parliamentary bill restricting haulage to horse traction, and forbidding stationary steam engines near such houses.
The main line at the eastern end was to cross the Tyne at Scotswood, then follow the north bank of the river closely and at a low level, to a termination at the Close, in Newcastle. There was to be a branch from Elswick Dean to a terminal at Thornton Street.Carlisle Patriot: 15 November 1828 Close, a mononymous road, still exists on the bank of the Tyne between Queen Elizabeth Bridge and High Level Bridge. Thornton Street street also still exists: a northward extension of Waterloo Street northwest of Central station; the location is at a high level and would have required a steep gradient (of about 1 in 50), worked by stationary engine and rope haulage.
There were considerable difficulties in the parliamentary process, particularly over levels, bridge clearances and construction, and resilience to flooding, but the (10 Geo. 4. c. lxxii) was passed on 22 May 1829, with authorised capital of £300,000. At the eastern end, the line was to be on the north bank of the Tyne near Scotswood bridge, with the Thornton Street branch in addition.
Engineering the line
Slow to start work In fact the supporters of the alternative route on the south of the Tyne, to Gateshead, continued their fight; the advantage of it was the comparative ease of reaching the section of the Tyne further east where sea-going ships could berth; mineral traffic from points on the line to shipping quays was a prime consideration, and a north-bank railway could not reach this location without extreme engineering difficulty. On 14 October 1829 a shareholder lobbied the proprietors urging this view, and after all the parliamentary argument over the route, the first shareholder's meeting on 16 October 1829 considered the matter yet again.
The revised route at the Carlisle end of the line was now uncontroversial, although it involved prodigious engineering works, including several viaducts and large bridges, and a tunnel. It was not until 25 March 1830 that work started: the foundation stone of the Eden Viaduct was laid by Henry Howard. In fact, the central section of the route was considered to be the best to bring in some early revenue, and that is where the emphasis was placed.
Cash flow problems
There were serious difficulties in getting subscribers to pay their calls, and this made the Newcastle directors timid in issuing calls, exacerbating the cash flow problem. The situation became so difficult that a further act of Parliament was sought, authorising additional loans; this was enacted as the (2 & 3 Will. 4. c. xcii) on 23 June. In late 1832 the problem was only overcome by obtaining a loan at 5% from the Public Works Loan Board. This involved conditions, including the cessation of paying dividends until trading income was being received and the giving of personal guarantees by the directors. (The dividends continued to be paid in the form of debentures, redeemable later, agilely side-stepping the Public Works Loan Board condition.)
Gateshead instead of Newcastle The controversy over the route at the eastern end continued and on 10 September 1833, the board decided to alter it to follow the south bank, to a terminus at Redheugh, at Askew's Quay, a little east of the location of the present King Edward VII bridge. By now the Stanhope and Tyne Railway was under construction; it was to run to Tyne Dock, some way downstream, and would get direct access to convey minerals to sea-going vessels, and the directors saw this as serious competition.
A presence on the north shore was still required—there were many quays opposite Redheugh, as well as the commercial district at a higher level—but now the Scotswood crossing of the Tyne was brought into question, and the Board decided to substitute a crossing nearer the city, at Derwenthaugh. In addition, it was now urgently desired to extend to deeper water east of Gateshead and a separate company was founded with the encouragement of the , to build that line. The (BG&HR) obtained legal authority in the (4 & 5 Will. 4. c. xxvi) on 22 May to build a line from Blaydon to Gateshead, the act also allowing the to build the line subject to conditions. The route was expected to require two rope-worked inclined planes, to climb from near Redheugh to the high ground of Gateshead, and then again to descend to the Tyne at Hebburn.E. F. Carter, An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles, Cassell, London, 1959
Having brought about the inception of the , the directors now considered whether to activate the option of building that line themselves, and on 21 August 1834 they decided to do so. This required a further act of Parliament, the (5 & 6 Will. 4. c. xxxi) which they secured on 17 June 1835; it authorised the building of the Redheugh line, and also a Tyne bridge there (instead of Derwenthaugh) to serve the north shore quays, although the Scotswood bridge was retained in the authorised works. Share capital was increased by £90,000 and a further Public Works Loan Board loan of £60,000 was included in the act.