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Welcome to the Cumbrian Railways Association website

The Cumbrian Railways Association was formed in 1976 in order to foster a widening interest in the fascinating history of the railways of Cumbria. Cumbria has enjoyed a remarkably diverse railway history. Starting with locally promoted lines such as those from Carlisle to Newcastle and Maryport in the 1830s and 40s, these were soon linked into the first of the great trunk lines through the area, the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway and its northern partner, the Caledonian Railway. Local lines proliferated round the coast serving the burgeoning coal and iron industries of West Cumberland and Furness, with the Furness Railway eventually dominating the scene in the south and west - and performing a vital role in the development of its home town, Barrow-in-Furness. Across the county ran the links from the Durham coal fields to West Cumberland and along the Pennines came the Settle & Carlisle line of the Midland Railway.

NEW !!
Historic Events of the Month - July
4th July 1977
6E32 Corkickle-West Thurrock 100-ton soda ash tanks derailed onto the beach at Braystones.  Line closed for 9 days.
Have you any photos of this dramatic event - fortunately with no casualties ?  We would love to hear from you.
Click here to find more rail events which occurred during the month of July in Cumbria over the last 150 years and more.

New collection uploaded on Oversands Photos website

Click image to find collection of 12 colour photos of Corkickle brake taken in the last week of operation by Peter Robinson.





Membership  
Click here for further information and to download an application form.

eMail Chat Group 
We also run an email chat group which is open to members and non-members. 
Click here for further information and to join 

Latest News
New Publication: The Ulverstone & Lancaster Railway 
See our full list of available publications here

 

 

CRA Photograph Library
The Association has a very extensive photographic library extending to around 40,000 images, and including railways in other parts of the UK (and parts of Europe) and shipping.  A very substantial proportion of these have been or are being digitised and a growing selection being mounted on our separate Photo Library website. A small selection of high quality images will be shown as the Photo of the Month on this site (see left).

More information about the CRA's resources in terms of photographs and archives may be found on the Resources and Services section of this site (see left).

 

 

 

© Cumbrian Railways Association

22 May 2009 PWR