Furness Railway

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The Furness Railway (Furness) was a railway company operating in the Furness area of north-west England.

Contents

1 History
2 Line details
3 Barrow Docks
4 Other statistics
5 See also
6 External links

History

The company was established on May 23 1844 when the Furness Railway Act was passed by Parliament. The line, as originally laid, was intended principally for mineral traffic (slate and iron ore), and extended from Barrow-in-Furness and Piel Pier (east of Barrow) to mines and quarries at Dalton-in-Furness and Kirkby-in-Furness (both close to Barrow in the north). That portion was opened on August 11 1846. Passenger traffic began in December 1846.

Subsequent extensions took the railway to Ulverston in April 1854; and eventually the line extended to Whitehaven, Carnforth (where the Furness linked with the London and North Western Railway and thence to Lancaster (see below), Coniston and Windermere (Lakeside). The line was linked to Lancaster on August 27 1857 by the Ulverston and Lancaster Railway, which was bought out by the Furness Railway in 1862.

In 1867 the Hincaster Branch from Arnside to the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway at Hincaster was opened[link].

The original main line did not run through Barrow, though its headquarters and engineering works were adjacent to St. George's Square. Through trains had to run into the terminal station and then out again to continue their journey. The new Barrow Cantral station was not opened until 1882, when through working became possible.

The first locomotive superintendent was James Ramsden. No locomotives were built by the works itself. They were generally the standard designs of the manufacturers from whom they were bought, by 1921 from 15 different works. In 1896, W.F.Pettigrew, who had taken over, introduced some level of standardisation.

There were also carriage and wagon-building shops, and repairs and maintenance was carried out on the equipment of Barrow Docks.

It was connected to the Midland Railway by the Furness and Midland Joint Railway.

Line details

Viaducts: The line crosses several major estuaries - the Kent and Leven rivers being among them - over substantial viaducts.
Tunnel: the Bransty Tunnel in Whitehaven is 1333 yd (1219 m) in length
Total mileage (lines owned or worked) (1912): 190.25 miles (306 km)

Barrow Docks

Details given are those shown for 1912:

Total area of water: 278 acres (1.13 km²)
Four docks: Devonshire; Buccleugh; Ramsden; and Cavendish. There was also a Timber Dock.
Length of quays 2.25 miles (4 km)
The firm of Messrs Vickers built major ships for the Royal Navy here
There was also a deep water berth in Walney Channel

Other statistics

As at 31 December 1911 the Railway owned rolling stock as follows:
* 130 locomotives; 348 coaching vehicles; 7766 goods vehicles; 2 steam rail motor cars
* Locomotives painted Indian red; passenger vehicles ultramarine blue with white upper panels
* Passengers carried (year ending 31 December 1911) 3 297 622
* Steamers: Barrow-Fleetwood service - four paddle steamers; lake steamers - two on Coniston Water; seven on Lake Windermere; three Barrow steam tugs

The Furness Railway operated as an independent company until December 1922, when it was merged as one of the constituent companies of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway following the Railways Act 1921.

Information contained in this article is extracted from Railway Year Book (Railway Publishing Company) for 1912

External links

Major constituent railway companies of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway: