Leeds – Morecambe railway line

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Leeds-Morecambe railway line
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	25 kV (Leeds City – Skipton)  ~
Legend Leeds City Station Shipley to Bradford Bingley Keighley and Worth Valley Railway Keighley former Yorkshire Dales Railway Skipton to Colne via Leeds and Bradford Extension Railway Gargrave Bell Busk to Blackburn via Ribble Valley Line Hellifield Long Preston Settle Junction to Carlisle on the Settle-Carlisle Line Giggleswick Clapham to Low Gill via London and North Western Railway Bentham Low Bentham Wennington Melling Arkholme-with-Cawood Borwick to Carlisle on the West Coast Main Line to Barrow-in-Furness via Furness Line Carnforth Bolton-le-Sands Hest bank Wray Hornby Claughton Caton Halton Lancaster Green Ayre Lancaster West Coast Main Line Scale reverb Bare Lane Poulton Lane Morecambe Euston Road Morecambe Morecambe Northumberland Street Railway Station Morecambe Harbor Morecambe promenade Middleton Road Bridge stop Heysham Port

The Leeds-Morecambe Railway is a railway line that runs from Leeds via Skipton and Lancaster to Morecambe in northern England . The route is used by Northern Rail trains and historically belonged to the Midland Railway . On the section between Leeds City Station and Skipton, the line is equipped with an overhead line for 25 kV AC voltage and is used there by the trains of the Airedale Line .

Sections and their history

Airedale Line

The first section between Leeds City Station and Shipley was opened by the Leeds and Bradford Railway on July 1, 1846 . The Leeds and Bradford Extension Railway continued the route to Skipton. The Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, opened in 1867 , branches off in Keighley .

Skipton - Settle

This section of the railway company known as the " Little " North Western Railway was opened to traffic on July 30, 1849 to Clapham and on June 1, 1850 to Lancaster . This section had branches

• the Yorkshire Dales Railway as a connection from Skipton to the Ilkley Line from July 30, 1902 to September 22, 1930 and
• a continuation of the Leeds and Bradford Extension Railway to Colne and thus a connection to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway to Preston .

Settle Junction - Lancaster

The original line to Lancaster had a branch to Ingleton at Clapham . This made it possible to travel to Low Gill via Sedbergh and meet the London and North Western Railway there. The line was opened in 1861 between Ingleton and Lancaster by the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway . On February 1, 1954, passenger traffic ceased on the section of the route, and in 1966 it was completely closed. This section served as a diversion in the event of disruptions on the main line from Settle to Lancaster.

In Wennington there was a connection to the Furness and Midland Joint Railway until 1966 . This made it possible to drive on the route of the North Western Railway, later the Midland Railway via Lancaster Green Ayre to Morecambe.

Route use

The railway line in its present form has only existed since January 1966. Up to this point in time, the trains in Wennington were separated and wagons to / from Leeds were relocated there. The Beeching Report had described this procedure as unsatisfactory, and so passengers for the Furness Line have to change trains in Carnforth today .

The line served until 1986 to bring freight trains with ammonia from Teesside to a now closed ICI factory in Heysham and bitumen from Ellesmere Port to Skipton. From the Railway Museum in Carnforth, trains occasionally hauled by steam engines run on the route. Today the route is only used by passenger trains.

literature

• D. Binns, The 'Little' North Western Railway , Wyvern Publishing, Skipton, 1982. ISBN 0-907941-01-X
• J. Marshall, Forgotten Railways North-West England , David & Charles (Publishers) Ltd, Newton Abbott, 1981. ISBN 0-7153-8003-6
• J. Towler, The Battle for The Settle & Carlisle , Platform 5 Publishing, Sheffield, 1990. ISBN 1-872524-07-9

Web links

• Brief History of the Leeds to Morecambe Line on Community Rail Lancashire Bentham Line