In 1995 the Eden Valley Railway Society was formed with the aim of reinstating services and restoring on the line.

[3] Another similar scheme was the Northumberland & Lancashire Union which would have run from Gateshead near Newcastle upon Tyne to Barnard Castle, and then as the York & Carlisle line across the Pennines via Kirkby Stephen to Tebay.

[1][3] Both the Yorkshire & Glasgow Union and part of the York & Carlisle Junction to Tebay were empowered by acts of Parliament in 1845[4] but the end of the Railway bubble of the 1840s meant that they were not built.

The main purpose of these lines was freight, not passengers; bringing higher grade iron ore from Cumberland and Lancashire to the blast furnaces of the North East, and coal and coke from the mines of Durham to the northwest of England.

[9] Construction of the 22-mile (35 km) line was contracted to Messrs. Lawton Brothers of Newcastle, the turning of the sod ceremony took place on 4 August 1858 with Lord Brougham.

[8] Construction of the line was straightforward with only three minor rivers to cross and no tunnels in low-lying land; the maximum incline was 1 in 80, the average 1 in 150.

Two miles (3 km) after the junction a bridge over Scandal Beck is reached which was crossed by an iron bridge,[8] less than 1+1⁄4 miles (2 km) further north the River Eden was crossed by Musgrave viaduct[map 1] of three 63-foot (19 m) lattice girder iron spans.

[14] The following year the Stockton and Darlington merged into the North Eastern Railway,[15] and the Eden Valley line too became part of that larger system.

During the construction of the railway, in 1861, an act of Parliament was passed that would increase the importance of the Eden Valley Line.

It connected to the Cockermouth and Workington Railway, and hence the ports and industrialised iron-rich regions of the west Cumbrian coast (Workington, Whitehaven) were linked to the Lancaster and Carlisle line (operated by the London and North Western Railway) near Penrith close to the Eden Valley's own junction.

Eden Valley passenger trains now ran via this northern track, and had running powers on the L&CR line, now going to Penrith.

At the southern end of the route, the Stainmore Railway Company has reinstated a short stretch of track near Kirkby Stephen East station.

[23] Clifton Moor,[24] Cliburn,[25] Temple Sowerby[26] and Warcop[27] and Musgrave railway stations[28] are now private residences.