WCML Lake District (No Industry) Mod

WCML Lake District (No Industry) Mod

The first inter-city railways began in southern Lancashire, with the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. It only took a few years before dozens of companies began adding to that network, with the Wigan Branch Railway, Preston and Wigan Railway and Lancaster and Preston Junction Railway. The ultimate goal was to link Scotland with the rail network, and from Lancaster there was a number of potential routes that could be taken to link with the Caledonian Railway at Carlisle.
The first is the via the Cumbrian coast. Although a very roundabout route, this would avoid the huge mountains of the north Pennines and the Lake District.
The second is directly through the mountains, via Kendal and Keswick. This would be the most direct route, but the gradients would be to steep for locomotives at the time, and a lot of expensive tunnels.
The final is also directly through the mountains, although taking a diversion from Oxenholme via Shap summit. This would be fairly direct, but misses a lot of towns, and also has a lot of gradients.
After a lot of debate, the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway opted for the third route, and opened on 1st September 1847, with a branch to Kendal, and an independent railway extending this branch to Windermere. The railway remained independant until it was absorbed by the London and North Western Railway in 1859, completing it’s main line from London all the way to Carlisle, where it met the Caledonian Railway which completed the West Coast Main Line to Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The coast line was also built in stages, although was owned by various companies. Firstly, the Furness Railway between Carnforth and Whitehaven, the London and North Western Railway between Whitehaven and Maryport (which they accessed via a line between Penrith and Workington), and the Maryport and Carlisle Railway between Maryport and Carlisle.
A lot of these lines are still open today, and form an important part of the country’s network.
This map allows you to build both lines between Lancaster and Carlisle, as well as many branches in the area such as:
Workington – Penrith
Carlisle – Dumfries
Lancaster – Heysham
This map contains no industry, a version is coming soon that contains industries.
This is my first map in my West Coast Main Line series, which will contain:
WCML South (London – Coventry)
(Coventry – Stafford via Birmingham will be covered in a potential West Midlands map)
WCML Midlands (Northampton – Stafford)
WCML Grand Junction (Stafford – Chester / Warrington)
WCML North Wales (Chester – Holyhead)
WCML Lancashire (Warrington – Lancaster)
WCML Lake District (Lancaster – Lockerbie)
WCML North (Lockerbie – Glasgow)
WCML Highland (Perth – Inverness)