The engineer was Joseph Locke and the partnership of contractors consisted of Thomas Brassey, William Mackenzie, Robert Stephenson and George Heald.

The leisure business on which the branch line depended declined considerably around 1960 and the infrastructure was simplified.

The difficult terrain presented a significant challenge, particularly because steam engines did not have a great hauling power in the early years.

[note 1][3] 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.

The bill passed without opposition, and royal assent was given to the Kendal and Windermere Railway Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict.

[6] 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.

Wealthy merchants were provided with an exclusive club car working in to Windermere on Friday afternoons, but later running each way daily.

The route was reduced to a single line without a run-round facility at Windermere in 1973, and Joy remarks that: This created the bizarre situation of excursions having to terminate at Oxenholme and disgorge their passengers on to droves of road coaches while the trains were worked empty over the 50 miles to Carlisle for turning and servicing.

His letters to the editor of the Morning Post are reproduced in The Illustrated Wordsworth's Guide to the Lakes, P. Bicknell, Ed.

His reactions to the technological and "picturesque" incursions of man on his beloved, wild landscape most famously include the following sonnet: On the opening of the railway in 1847 one of the contracting engineers, George Heald, wrote an impassioned riposte to Wordsworth accusing him of wanting to obstruct the opportunities the railway would bring.