Horse drawn railway service at Port Carlisle

Horse drawn railway service at Port Carlisle

Photographs of one of the Dandy cars:
ct24852 undated postcard showing the Dandy car
ct41537 undated photograph of the Dandy car
ct00402 Final day of the operation of the Dandy car service, 1914

The village of Port Carlisle, originally known as Fishers Cross, was developed as a port in 1819 to handle goods for Carlisle using the canal link built in 1823. In 1854, just after the canal was filled in, a railway opened using the canal bed for its route from Carlisle to Port Carlisle. Four horse drawn ‘Dandy cars’, built by the North British Railway, were used on the Port Carlisle to Carlisle railway. Freight services were withdrawn in 1899, but the horse drawn passenger service instituted in 1863 continued until 1914, when it was replaced by steam. In 1932 the branch line closed. One of the Dandy cars was originally preserved at Carlisle, before being moved to the National Railway Museum at York.

Anonymous photographers

Cumbria Image Bank http://www.cumbriaimagebank.org.uk/

Lancaster University

The service ended in 1914

Reproduced by courtesy of Cumbria Image Bank, who retain all rights over this image. No further reproduction is permitted without written permission of Cumbria Image Bank.

Photograph of the preserved Dandy car in the National Railway Museum in York, with descriptive information, in the Railway Heritage Register: http://www.cs.vintagecarriagestrust.org/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=882

Further photographs of the Dandy car from the National Railway Museum: http://www.nrm.org.uk/ourcollection/locomotivesandrollingstock/CollectionItem?objid=1975-7058&pageNo=6&ipp=12

Twentieth century

Photographs and a postcard