Port Carlisle Branch Junction

Location type

Junction

Name and dates

Port Carlisle Branch Junction (1860-1969)

Opened on the Caledonian Railway.
Opened on the Carlisle Goods Loop (Carlisle Goods Traffic Committee).
Opened on the Port Carlisle Branch Junction to Canal Junction Curve (Caledonian Railway).

Description

This junction was north of Carlisle. It was the eastern end of a connecting line, Port Carlisle Junction to Canal Junction Curve (Caledonian Railway) opened in 1860 to give the Waverley Route an approach to Carlisle station.

The two lines were double track. The signal box ('Carlisle No 2' opened 1876) was on the east side of the line. It probably opened due to the impending opening of the Carlisle Goods Loop (Carlisle Goods Traffic Committee) in 1877.

The new goods line ran from Willowholme Junction to the west southwards parallel to the existing Caledonian Railway main line approach to Carlisle from the north. Having crossed over the Caldew Viaduct (increased to quadruple track) it connected to the Caledonian Railway at Caldew Junction before running south to bypass Carlisle on its west side.

In 1909 a resignalling combined Carlisle No 2 and Carlisle No 3 boxes, the new box being at No 3.

The junction was altered in 1942 when the goods line was extended north beyond Kingmoor Shed to meet the Caledonian Railway at Etterby Junction and Kingmoor Junction.

In 1962, with the opening of the Kingmoor Marshalling Yard, the Willowholme Junction to Port Carlisle Branch Junction link was closed, replaced by a new goods connection to the new yard in 1963.

The Waverley Route closed in 1969. The junction ceased to be a true junction with the closure of the connecting line to Canal Junction [Carlisle].

A junction, of sorts, remains here. The goods line on the west side of the main line, the southern end of which starts as a single track at Caldew Junction, doubles going north to Kingmoor Marshalling Yard.

Tags

Junction

Aliases

Carlisle No 2


Books


An Illustrated History of Carlisle's Railways

Bradshaw's Guides Scotlands Railways West Coast - Carlisle to Inverness: 5

Caledonian Dunalastairs and Associated Classes (Locomotive Monograph)

Caledonian in LMS Days (Railways in Retrospect)

Caledonian Railway

Caledonian Railway Carriages

Caledonian Railway Livery: The True Line Elegance and Style

Caledonian Railway Wagons & Non-Passenger Coaching Stock

Caledonian Routes 3: Stirling to Crianlarich - DVD - Oakwood Press

Caley to the Coast: Rothesay by Wemyss Bay (Oakwood Library of Railway History)

Callander & Oban Railway Through Time

Callander and Oban Railway (Library of Railway History)

Carlisle To Beattock: including the Dumfries Branch (Scottish Main Lines)

Carlisle to Hawick: The Waverley Route (Scml)

Signalling the Caledonian Railway

The Caledonian Railway 'jumbos' the 18in. X 26in. 0-6-0s

The Caledonian, Scotland's Imperial Railway: A History

The Vanished Railways of Old Western Dunbartonshire (Britains Railways/Old Photos)

Through Scotland with the Caledonian Railway

Vanished Railways of West Lothian