Kendal and Windermere Railway

In the 1830s there were parallel efforts to construct railways in both England and central Scotland, but the two networks were not connected. From 1832 it became increasingly certain that a connection between England and Scotland would be built northward from Preston to Carlisle and beyond. The difficult terrain presented a significant challenge, particularly because steam engines did not have a great hauling power in the early years. A line following the Cumberland coast reached by a massive barrage across Morecambe Bay was proposed, but although it gave access to population centres, it was a very roundabout route and the cost of the Morecambe Bay barrage would be considerable.

More direct routes were proposed involving steep gradients and long tunnels and several were viable. Kendal was the only town of any size between Lancaster and Carlisle and there was great dismay in Kendal when the favoured routes by-passed the town. A possible route running north from Kendal along Long Sleddale required a long and deep tunnel to proceed to the west shore of Hawes Water.

Finance was hard to come by and proponents of the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway, delayed presenting a Bill in Parliament, but in 1843 their engineer, Joseph Locke, made some modifications to the intended route to save expense, and published a route passing several miles east of Kendal. Interested parties in Kendal decided to build a branch railway to their town from the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway and continue it to the shore of Windermere, which was by then a tourist attraction.

In the 1845 session of Parliament, a bill was presented for the Kendal and Windermere Railway which was to run from Oxenholme to Birthwaite, a small community in what is now Windermere town. It would make a junction with the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway at Oxenholme. The bill passed without opposition, and royal assent was given to the Kendal and Windermere Railway Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. xxxii) on 30 June 1845. The line would be single track between Kendal and Windermere, although it was changed to double track, without increasing the authorised £125,000 share capital. Construction was carried out in collaboration with the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway.

At first there were five trains a day in each direction between Kendal and Windermere, with extra trips to Oxenholme; but by the summer of 1853 there were six trains each way between Kendal and Windermere and nine return journeys between Kendal and Oxenholme. A passenger carriage was attached to the 16.00 goods train out of Windermere. On special holidays a cheap day return ticket from Kendal to Windermere cost 6d.

The K&WR company was constantly in financial and operational difficulty and petty disagreements with the L&CR, on which it relied for onward journeys were commonplace. By 1848 the K&WR saw that independence was difficult and made overtures to the L&CR to lease or buy the line, but was not received favourably. For ten years there was constant friction. K&WR trains were often late arriving at Oxenholme and main line trains were held until the L&CR grew impatient and told the K&WR to get its trains to the junction ten minutes earlier.

The branch was worked by the London and North Western Railway as part of the pool of rolling stock it made available to the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway. From summer 1850 the working was transferred to E. B. Wilson, of Leeds, until the company took on its own working in November 1851.

The K&WR system was leased in perpetuity to the L&CR from 1 May 1858 and parliamentary ratification took place in the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway Act 1859 (22 & 23 Vict. c. cxxiv) of 13 August 1859 when the L&CR was leased to the LNWR which guaranteed the K&WR shareholders 3 per cent on ordinary shares and 6 per cent on the preference shares. The Kendal and Windermere Railway Company continued as a financial entity until 21 July 1879.