button to main menu  Old Cumbria Gazetteer
Cumbrian Coast main line
county:-   Cumbria
locality type:-   railway

evidence:-   descriptive text:- Ford 1839 (3rd edn 1843) 
source data:-   Guide book, A Description of Scenery in the Lake District, by Rev William Ford, published by Charles Thurnam, Carlisle, by W Edwards, 12 Ave Maria Lane, Charles Tilt, Fleet Street, William Smith, 113 Fleet Street, London, by Currie and Bowman, Newcastle, by Bancks and Co, Manchester, by Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, and by Sinclair, Dumfries, 1839.
image FD01P003, button  goto source
Page 3:-  "... Mr. Stephenson proposes in his line of Railway, intended to connect Preston with Carlisle and Glasgow, to carry an embankment across these Sands [Lancaster Sands], by which project an immense quantity of land would also be acquired."

hearsay:-  
George Stephenson reported to the Whitehaven Committee of the Grand Caledonian Railway on the relative merits of a west coast main line going inland via Shap Summit, or round the coast of Cumbria. From an ocular survey he deduced that the coast route would be longer, the Shap route would climb higher and be subject to bad weather. His recommended route was:-
... from Lancaster, through Morecambe, causeway over Lancaster Sands to Humphrey Head, Grange, viaduct of the Leven estuary, tunnel through the Furness peninsula, viaduct over the Duddon estuary, Millom, Ravenglass, Whitehaven, Workington, Maryport, to Carlisle.
A government commission in 1839 found in favour of the Shap route.

button to lakes menu  Lakes Guides menu.