Solway Junction Railway

Solway Junction Railway


Solway Viaduct - Solway Junction Railway

Map of the Solway Junction Railway
(Aston & Barrie, 1932; p.28)
Locale Scotland
Dates of operation 13 September 1869 – 27 April 1931
Successor Caledonian Railway
Track gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Legend
 Caledonian Railway Main Line
Kirtlebridge
 Annan Shawhill

Annan
 Glasgow, Dumfries and Carlisle Railway
Solway Viaduct over Solway Firth
 Bowness
 Whitrigg
Carlisle and Silloth Bay Railway
Kirkbride Junction
 Abbey Junction
Carlisle and Silloth Bay Railway
 Bromfield
Maryport and Carlisle Railway

Brayton(M&CR)
Maryport and Carlisle Railway

The Solway Junction Railway was built by an independent railway company to shorten the route from ironstone mines in Cumberland to ironworks in Lanarkshire and Ayrshire.

It opened in 1869, and it involved a viaduct 1 mile 8 chains (1.8 km) long crossing the Solway Firth, as well as approach lines connecting existing railways on both sides.

The viaduct was susceptible to damage from floating ice sheets, and the rising cost of repairs and maintenance, and falling traffic volumes as the Cumberland fields became uncompetitive, led to closure of the viaduct in 1921. The viaduct and the connecting railways were dismantled, and now only the shore embankments remain.

History

Conception

In the late 1850s, business interests were concerned to improve transport facilities for iron ore being mined in the area of Canonbie, in south Dumfriesshire close to the English border. Their intention was to bring the mineral to Annan Harbour (on the north shore of the Solway Firth), from where it could be forwarded by coastal shipping. They approached James Brunlees, a civil engineer with experience of coastal works. He advised against the scheme, which would have partly duplicated the Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) route, but he put them in touch with business people in Cumberland, who had engaged him to plan a railway from Cumberland iron deposits to a new harbour at Bowness, on the south shore of the Solway.

The two groups conferred, and revised their plans; they projected a railway that would cross the Solway by a viaduct, connecting existing railways on both side of the Solway. At the time there was heavy iron ore traffic from Cumberland to Lanarkshire and Ayrshire ironworks, running by rail via Carlisle and the Caledonian Railway, the Glasgow and South Western Railway, or by coastal shipping. 92,000 tons of iron ore was exported from Cumberland to Scotland in 1863. The viaduct route would save considerable mileage and avoid congestion at Carlisle. The viaduct was to be the longest in Europe,[1] and overall the line from Kirtlebridge to Brayton would be be just over 20.4 miles long, including branches the total length would be about 25 miles (40 km). Brunlees was the designing engineer for both viaduct and line.[2][3]

The Parliamentary examination of the Dumfries and Cumberland (Solway Junction) Railway Bill took place in the 1864 session. The G&SWR objected to the scheme as tending to capture their traffic and divert it onto the Caledonian: this opposition was overruled, however,[3] and the Company was authorised (as the Solway Junction Railway) on 30 June 1864, with capital of £320,000 and predicted cost of £315,000.[4][5] The first chairman of the company was James Dees of Whitehaven;[6] he was soon succeeded by Alexander Brogden.[7] A further Act was passed in 1865 allowing deviations of the line in Cumberland. [8] In 1866 two Bills were brought forward. A Bill for a line from Brayton to join the Whitehaven Junction at Flimby (thus making the SJR independent of the Maryport and Carlisle) did not match its advance notice and was therefore rejected by Parliament,[9] but led to a satisfactory agreement with the M&C.[10][11] An Act was also passed authorising an increase in capital of £60,000 and further borrowing of £20,000: it also permitted the North British and the G&SWR to subscribe £100,000 each, should they so wish. [11] In 1867, a further Act was obtained; instead of running parallel to the Silloth railway (leased by the North British Railway), the Solway Junction would use running powers over it between Kirkbride and Abbey Holme.[12] The 1867 Act (as well as removing the opening span from the viaduct design) also confirmed the agreement with the Maryport and Carlisle and allowed the Caledonian to subscribe on the same basis as the North British and the G&SWR.[13] The Caledonian, alarmed at the possibility of the lucrative iron ore traffic being diverted off its system, acted (unlike the other companies) on the implicit invitation. In September 1867, an agreement whereby the Caledonian subscribed to £60,000 of 5% preference shares in the Solway Junction and operated the line was ratified by the shareholders of both companies.[14][15][note 1]

Construction

System map of the Solway Junction Railway

The viaduct was effectively a trestle construction with 193 spans of 30 feet (9.14 m); each pier consisted of five cast iron columns of hollow section, 12 inches (305 mm) diameter; the outer columns were raked. The columns were founded on iron tubular piles that were driven by a steam pile driver, after an unsuccessful attempt to screw them in to the substrate. Originally, the viaduct was to be of 80 30-foot spans, the railway being carried on a solid embankment as far as the low-water mark on either side. A 36-foot opening span was to be provided to allow the passage of small craft to the upper Solway ( chiefly to Port Carlisle);[16] the Board of Trade however objected to so major an obstruction to tidal flows and required a 50-foot opening span to allow the passage of steam tugs. The promoters accepted both objections at first,[17] but the Bill of 1867 made no provision for an opening span, the promoters arguing that the traffic of Port Carlisle was negligible and should not be allowed to compromise the viaduct design. This argument won the day; although the Board of Trade confirmed its earlier stand that the traffic of Port Carlisle was not negligible,[18] Parliament was persuaded that it was insignificant in comparison to the projected traffic over the viaduct and as built the viaduct made no provision for ships to pass through it; this ended any commercial use of the harbour at Port Carlisle.

The cost of the viaduct and approach embankments was £100,000. It had 193 spans with 2,892 tons of cast iron for the piles and columns, and 1,807 tons of wrought iron in the superstructure; it was constructed so as to enable easy widening to carry double track if this was later required. Bowness Moss on the Cumberland side was a particular difficulty over a distance of a mile and a quarter (2 km); it was "unsafe for cattle and horses", and considerable works had to be put in hand to stabilise it.

Opening

A trial trip was made on 26 June 1869, ahead of the Board of Trade inspection[19] and freight traffic started on 13 September 1869, with three mineral trains each way daily.[20] The line opened to passengers between Kirtlebridge and Bowness on 8 March 1870,[21] but the Board of Trade inspector would not approve passenger traffic over the Bowness Moss section until he was persuaded it had been adequately consolidated by goods traffic. After re-inspection on 23 July 1870 it was passed for passenger use: the first passenger train over the line (28 July 1870) was a 'special' from Aspatria to an agricultural show at Dumfries.[22] A regular passenger service - four trains a day between Kirtlebridge and Brayton, with intermediate stations at Annan and Bowness - began on 8 August 1870.[23] The station at Abbey Junction opened 31 August 1870.[24]

Financial difficulties

The mineral traffic never came up to the original expectations; by March 1871 the board were regretting that a fall-off in the volume of iron ore being sent into Scotland meant less traffic and lower revenues than anticipated. In the previous half-year revenue receipts had been £3741, working expenses £3487, and interest due on debentures £4036.[25] In 1873 the SJR sold the line between Annan and Kirtlebridge to the Caledonian for £84,000, the Caledonian paying a further £40,000 for land: the Act authorising this was also used to restructure the SJR's debt; its debentures were now to pay 3.5% rather than 5%.[26] The reduction in interest due was largely irrelevant; by March 1877, operating revenue in the previous half-year was still only £4560, and an operating profit of £1046 allowed a 2% per annum dividend to be paid on the debentures.[27] In the mid-1870s Spanish iron ore became readily and cheaply available and was shipped direct to Ayrshire ports, competing with Cumbrian ore. The SJR also subsequently alleged that it had been deliberately starved of much of the remaining traffic by the Maryport and Carlisle and the Caledonian, who continued to route traffic by Carlisle unless (and in some cases despite being) explicitly routed over the SJR by the consignee.[28] The iron traffic in the first half of 1878 was only one-third of that in 1877, the receipts for the half-year were under £2700 and the net operating profit was £104.[29] Arrears of interest on debentures was by then over £8,000.[30] There was a slight recovery, and by 1880 a dividend was again being paid on debentures, but the arrears of interest were accumulating. The company was therefore in no financial state to withstand the loss of the viaduct and a need for major expenditure to repair it.

Debacle

In the winter of 1874-5 longditudinal cracks appeared in a few columns; water was getting inside and freezing in cold weather. This happened on eleven load-bearing columns (which were replaced) and about twenty 'rakers' which were 'clipped'. To prevent any repetition, half-inch holes were drilled just above the high-water mark. Some braces were also broken by the impact of floating ice, but no columns were damaged.[31]

In January 1881 an exceptionally cold spell lasted most of the month, and ice accumulated in the upper estuary and the rivers feeding it. Sheets of ice up to six inches formed; fragments of these sheets rode over each other and froze together, leading to the formation of blocks of ice up to six feet (two metres) thick.[31] As the cold spell ended, the ice began coming down upon the viaduct about 25 January, but there was no damage to the structure until 29 January when much more ice was coming down. The maximum speed of water through the viaduct (at half-ebb) was about eight to ten miles an hour and the shock of ice floes hitting the piers could clearly be felt by anyone standing on the bridge; the noise could be heard a mile away. On the morning of 29 January three rakers and one load-bearing column were found to be damaged. The damage was assessed, running repairs made, and trains allowed to proceed over the viaduct under caution.[31] Over the course of 30 January, a number of piers gave way under repeated shocks; by the morning of 31 January it was found that five piers, consisting of five pillars each, were completely demolished, and that a great many single pillars in other piers had given way.[32] The ice continued to come down in large shoals, and inflict further damage; until, by 3 February:

The damage to the pillars begins at a distance of 400 yards from the English coast and extends in varying degree to about 100 yards from the Scotch side. In the intervening distance between these points there are altogether 44 entire piers gone, two of them double piers of 10 columns each; and other pillars have been broken at intervals in other places, making the total number of pillars broken over 300. In some places where piers are completely swept away the spans remain in position, but there are two complete gaps in the bridge where piers, girders, plates and railway have completely disappeared. These two breaches in the structure measure together between 300 and 400 yards.[33]

Major Marindin of the Board of Trade conducted an enquiry. He recommended that the repairs to the viaduct should include ice fenders to protect the piers.

In 1882 Parliamentary Authority was obtained to raise £30,000 to pay for the repairs. The money was to be raised by issue of debenture stock; the Caledonian offered to take all of it, but the Solway Junction, fearing for its independence, refused to allocate the Caledonian any.[34] The viaduct was re-opened on 1 May 1884.[2]

Transfer to the Caledonian Railway

An Act had been passed on 21 July 1873 authorising the agreed purchase of the section between Kirtlebridge and Annan by the Caledonian Railway, ratifying an arrangement from the previous month.[34]

On 22 June 1895 the Caledonian acquired the remainder of the Solway Junction line; it already held £122,500 of the company's capital of £467,153, and was to pay a perpetual annuity of £4,500 to the company.

Maintenance deferred, and closure

In 1914 an assessment of the maintenance needs of the viaduct was carried out. The long metal structure exposed to a marine atmosphere had deteriorated and £15,500 would need to be expended in maintenance work. The outbreak of World War I in fact suspended the work, but the demands for raw materials for munitions gave the line additional traffic.

A miners' strike took place in May 1921, by which time the daily train service had reduced to one mixed train each way, and on 30 May the service was amended to two return trips per week. In August 1921 a new review of the maintenance needs on the viaduct showed that £70,000 needed to be spent: this sum was beyond what was justified and after the last train on 31 August 1921 the viaduct line was closed. The section between Kirtlebridge and Annan, and between Brayton and Abbey Junction continued in operation for the time being. Until demolished, the viaduct was used by pedestrian trespassers, most notably on Sunday from Annan (where drinking establishments did not open on a Sunday) to Bowness (where they did).[35]

Dismantling

Any future use of the viaduct was impossibly expensive, and after a period of dormancy, in 1933 arrangements were made to demolish it. Arnott, Young and Company purchased the bridge and dismantled it; much of the material found a second use, and some of the metal was used by the Japanese forces in the Sino-Japanese War. During the work three men lost their lives when attempting extraction of one of the piles; the men were inexperienced in boat work and their boat was caught in strong currents and capsized.

The dismantling of the viaduct was completed by November 1935, but sections of the pier foundations remained in the bed of the estuary. The section of railway between the south end of the viaduct and Kirkbride Junction was dismantled as part of the process.

The section of line between Abbey Junction and Brayton continued in use, as part of the Maryport and Carlisle section, until closure after 4 February 1933.

Passenger trains ceased operating on the northern section between Kirtlebridge and Annan from 27 April 1931. A twice-weekly goods service ran to Annan from the G&SWR line, reversing at a headshunt towards the former viaduct. This arrangement was discontinued in January 1955.[2]

Since closure

During World War II an RAF airfield was created near Creca, north of Annan, and part of the original line from Kirtlebridge to that point was reinstated.[36][37] The line was dismantled some time in the 1960s.

In 1959 Chapelcross nuclear power station was opened; the location is on the east side of the former line about half way between Kirtlebridge and Annan, close to the RAF station site. It is likely that the RAF station line was used to bring in construction materials. Liquid effluent from the power station was discharged into the Solway Firth at Annan and at least the final part of the railway alignment was used to route the effluent pipes. The power station has now been decommissioned.

Locomotives

The Solway Junction Railway decided from the outset to work its own line. It acquired four locomotives from Neilson and Company. Nos. 1 and 2 were 0-4-2 well tanks and nos. 3 and 4 were 0-4-2 tender engines. In 1868 two further locomotives were ordered; nos 5 and 6 were 0-6-0 tender engines, also from Neilson; they never bore their SJR numbers, going straight to the Caledonian Railway numbering series. The final locomotive considered to belong to the SJR route was a small-wheeled 0-6-0 saddle tank, built by Manning Wardle and acquired second hand for shunting work. In January 1872 it was disposed of to the Wigtownshire Railway.[2]

The route

The line ran south from Kirtlebridge on the Caledonian Railway Main Line through undulating country to Annan Shawhill station. The line descended to the Solway viaduct, and a west-to-south spur from the G&SWR Annan station trailed in. At the south side of the Solway, Bowness station was reached, and the line then passed across the marshy terrain, then reaching Whitrigg, before connecting with the Carlisle and Silloth Bay Railway at Kirkbride Junction. The through route used that railway as far as Abbey Junction, from where the Solway Junction Railway's own route ran via Bromfield to Brayton, where it joined the Maryport and Carlisle Railway route.[2]

Locations on the line were:

(Note: locations in italic were not passenger stations.)

Closure date

There are contradictory references to the date of final closure of the viaduct, but this was probably 1 September 1921. Clinker states that the entire line closed from 1917 to 1919,[39] and Stansfield states that "the service ... was suspended from January 1917 to March 1924", but this is refuted by Quick, who states that Bradshaw's Timetables for the period continued to show a passenger train service, and that no Railway Clearing House documentation for the closure was found. Clinker also states that the viaduct and lines in England closed from 20 May 1921, and Ross says (on page 185) that the "viaduct was officially declared closed from 20 May 1921", but this probably refers to a temporary suspension during the coal emergency.[38]

Connections to other lines

References

  1. 1 2 Gordon Stansfield, Dumfries & Galloway's Lost Railways, Stenlake Publishing, Catrine, ISBN 1 84033 057 0
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Stuart Edgar and John M Sinton, The Solway Junction Railway, Oakwood Press, Headington, 1990, ISBN 0 85361 395 8
  3. 1 2 "The Solway Junction Railway - The Preamble Proved". Carlisle Journal. 6 May 1864. p. 7.
  4. ↑ abrdged prospectus printed as advertisement - "Solway Junction Railway Company". Whitehaven News. 8 September 1864. p. 8.
  5. ↑ E F Carter, An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles, Cassell, London, 1959
  6. ↑ (advertisement): "Solway Junction Railway Company". Cumberland Pacquet, and Ware's Whitehaven Advertiser. 16 August 1864. p. 4.
  7. ↑ notice of second half-yearly meeting printed as advertisement - "Solway Junction Railway Company". Whitehaven News. 16 February 1865. p. 1.
  8. ↑ advertisement:"Solway Junction Railway". Carlisle Journal. 29 November 1864. p. 2.
  9. ↑ "Solway Junction Railway". Carlisle Journal. 9 March 1866. p. 5.
  10. ↑ "Maryport and Carlisle Railway". Whitehaven News. 16 August 1866. p. 5.
  11. 1 2 "Railway Intelligence - Solway Junction Railway". Whitehaven News. 9 August 1866.
  12. ↑ "North British Railway". Saturday Supplement to the Carlisle Journal of Friday. 29 March 1867. p. 1.
  13. ↑ "The Solway Junction Railway". Cumberland Pacquet, and Ware's Whitehaven Advertiser. 6 August 1867. p. 5.
  14. ↑ "Caledonian Railway". Carlisle Patriot. 27 September 1867. p. 7.
  15. ↑ "Solway Junction Railway". Carlisle Journal. 1 October 1867. p. 3.
  16. ↑ "Dumfries and Cumberland (Solway) Junction Railway Bill". The Scotsman. 21 March 1864. p. 3.
  17. ↑ "Railway Bridge across the Solway". Carlisle Patriot. 12 October 1866. p. 6.
  18. ↑ "The Trade of Port Carlisle". Carlisle Journal. 15 March 1867. p. 4.
  19. ↑ "Solway Junction Railway". Glasgow Herald. 29 June 1869. p. 7.
  20. ↑ "The Solway Junction Railway". Glasgow Herald. 14 September 1869. p. 4.
  21. ↑ "Kirtlebridge - Solway Junction Railway". Cumberland Pacquet, and Ware's Whitehaven Advertiser. 8 March 1870. p. 6.
  22. ↑ "Local and District News". Carlisle Patriot. 29 July 1870. p. 5.
  23. ↑ "Solway Junction Railway". Carlisle Patriot. 12 August 1870. p. 5.
  24. ↑ "Solway Junction Railway". Whitehaven News. 29 September 1870. p. 4.
  25. ↑ "Railway Intelligence - Solway Junction Railway". Cumberland Pacquet, and Ware's Whitehaven Advertiser. 4 April 1871. p. 6.
  26. ↑ "The Solway Junction Railway Bill". The Scotsman. 23 May 1873. p. 5.
  27. ↑ "Public Companies". Evening Standard (London). 30 March 1877. p. 6.
  28. ↑ "Solway Junction Railway Bill". The Scotsman. 24 May 1882. p. 7.
  29. ↑ "Money Market.". Leeds Mercury. 24 September 1878. p. 4.
  30. ↑ "Commercial - Agricultural and Commerce". Leeds Mercury. 1 October 1878. p. 7.
  31. 1 2 3 "The Solway Viaduct Disaster". Glasgow Herald. 22 February 1881. p. 6.
  32. ↑ "Serious Injury to the Solway Railway Viaduct". Glasgow Herald. 2 February 1881. p. 6.
  33. ↑ "The Damage to the Solway Viaduct". Edinburgh Evening News. 4 February 1881. p. 2.
  34. 1 2 David Ross, The Caledonian: Scotland's Imperial Railway: A History, Stenlake Publishing Limited, Catrine, 2014, ISBN 978 1840 335842
  35. ↑ "Trespassing on Solway Viaduct". The Scotsman. 1 June 1925. p. 9.
  36. ↑ Canmore site: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland: Annan Airfield
  37. ↑ Secret Scotland Website: RAF Annan
  38. 1 2 M E Quick, Railway Passenger Stations in England Scotland and Wales—A Chronology, The Railway and Canal Historical Society, 2007, ISBN 9780901461575
  39. ↑ C R Clinker, Register of Closed Passenger Stations and Goods Depots in England, Scotland and Wales, self published by C R Clinker, 1964

Notes

  1. ↑ Agreement in principle had been reached in March 1867, before the NBR acceded to the SJR's request for running powers over the Silloth railway. Doubtless, said the SJR chairman, had the NBR known the SJR would never have got running powers

Sources

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, May 04, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.