However, from 1879 the NBR made an alliance with the Midland Railway and traffic to England over that line became dominant, and Port Carlisle and Silloth were no longer of strategic value.

This was originally intended to enter the sea at Sandsfield, but Maryport was later chosen as the planned western terminus in order to avoid the difficulties of navigation in the upper Solway.

[2] By August 1818, the inhabitants of Carlisle had subscribed for £30,000 of shares; Lord Lonsdale observed that this was done more for the general benefit than for private gain (although it was predicted that the canal would be profitable).

The promoters (amongst whom Carlisle's two MPs were prominent) had decided that - even if cost of construction were no object - Fisher's Cross (on the Solway just short of Bowness) was preferable to Maryport as the western terminus of the canal.

4. c. lxxii), received royal assent in 1829, and the first stretch of railway at the western end (and the first passenger line in Cumbria) opened into Carlisle on 19 July 1836.

[18] For passenger transport to Liverpool, steamers were still cheaper than railways, but travel via Maryport was four hours quicker than via Port Carlisle, and the fare was the same.

[20] The channel of the Eden moved away from the canal entrance; from May 1849[21] the Liverpool steamers were unable to approach the port but had to land their passengers at Annan.

The canal company thought the problem was caused by a jetty erected by Lord Lonsdale at Raven Bank, about 2 km upstream of the canal entrance,[23] but it took time to convince Lord Lonsdale of this and persuade him to remove the jetty at the company's expense; not until the autumn of 1851 was this done, the Carlisle Journal reporting 'the most rapid and beneficial results',[24] but not until April 1852 were large steamers again able to use Port Carlisle harbour.

[36] The line was single throughout and followed the alignment of the canal throughout except at Kirkandrews where a curve avoiding low-lying ground was smoothed out by building an embankment.

The route was therefore broadly level except for short sharp gradients corresponding to the six former canal locks, but had unusually tight curves for a railway.

[41] Rather than accept defeat, it was hoped that the construction of a floating dock at Silloth served by a line from Drumburgh on the Port Carlisle railway would transform the fortunes of the company.

The survey as published eulogised Silloth Bay - there was more than enough water in the Solway channels for a battleship to reach Silloth Bay and to ride there 'at all times and at all seasons' and was much more guarded about navigation from there to the canal entrance: 'The navigation ... although easy, is in narrow channels, and, from the constant shifting of the banks, renders it necessary to keep a vigilant eye and shift the buoys as required.

'[28] In April 1852, the directors minuted that the conversion of the canal to railway should have in view its ultimate extension to Silloth Bay "the natural, and in every other respect, the most desirable terminus of the line, and the most eligible port for Carlisle" as shown by the 1847 investigation.

[42] One of the inducements to canal shareholders to agree to conversion was that if they refused a bill would be brought forward to build a railway from Carlisle to Silloth and establish a better harbour there.

[43] In 1854 a parliamentary bill was introduced to make a floating dock at Silloth and a railway 12.75 miles long to it, leaving the Port Carlisle line near Drumburgh.

The Maryport and Carlisle Railway opposed the Silloth Bay project as intended to create facilities competing with its own adequate provision for linking Carlisle and Tyneside with the Irish Sea and the bill failed after an independent survey failed to confirm the presence of a deep-water channel close inshore at the intended dock location (immediately south of the Cote lighthouse).

The Tory Carlisle Patriot, initially no worse than neutral on the project, began to object to the effective expropriation of the Canal Company assets, then widened its criticism to what it saw as other instances of disingenuity and want of candour on the part of the promoters.

Its most fundamental criticism was that it was of little concern to the Silloth promoters whether the project would pay a dividend, as long as it reduced costs for Carlisle-based manufacturers.

[60] [g] The Silloth Bay project was therefore cut off from the traffic which (rightly or wrongly) it had looked to as its source of profit, and had to pin its hopes on the eventual arrival of the Border Union in Carlisle.

'Locomotives, carriages and waggons all sold to another company, there remain thirteen miles of railway, three indifferent station-houses, a large dock almost destitute of shipping, with its western wall so damaged as to excite apprehensions for its safety, and an excellent jetty.

[56] In 1861 the Silloth company introduced a bill to build a branch from Abbey, crossing the Maryport and Carlisle at Leegate to serve collieries south of the M&C around Mealsgate, and to raise another £180,000 by preference shares and borrowing.

[81] The NBR, however, was not party to the West Coast & Irish Sea agreement and could therefore undercut it and develop considerable trade from the East of Scotland (e.g. Dundee) to Liverpool via Silloth, both lucrative in itself and a useful means to exert pressure on the West Coast Companies; the L&NWR duly offered to relax its blockade on NBR freight arriving at Carlisle if the aggressive pricing of the Silloth route stopped.

[89] The CSBD&R bought land north of the site of the docks and the station, levelled and grassed 'the great Sahara of Silloth' and laid out the infrastructure (streets, sewerage, gas works) to support a small town.

The North British Railway Company, much to their credit, have reduced the fares to Silloth so low that the expense of travelling is a mere trifle.

Here are, it is true, no gardens for vegetables, no public library, and the absence of some other conveniencies that mark our more established resorts; but there are good baths, a reading room of papers, to which some Scotch papers, by the way, might very suitably be added, a few bathing coaches, some cricket playing, and above all, there is the beautiful scenery of the bay, and the Dumfriesshire hills on the other side, beyond which the setting sun often departs in great beauty.

A committee seeking to establish a Sea Bathing Institution (as an adjunct to the Cumberland Infirmary) was offered a site in Silloth, but residents and railway shareholders objected that sea-bathing was the recommended treatment for unsightly skin diseases such as scrofula and the sight of sufferers would unsettle other visitors.

In 1886 Sir WG Armstrong Mitchell & Company set up an artillery range south of Silloth in 1886 for test firing of smaller-calibre ordnance before fitting to warships built at their works on Tyneside.

During World War II Silloth was a safe harbour compared with the larger west coast ports which were subject to heavy bombing.

In the early 1960s a major review of the railways of the country was undertaken, and a report was prepared which launched the so-called Beeching cuts; passenger traffic on the Silloth line was indicated for withdrawal.

It was argued that only the rail link could handle the peak traffic, but the Silloth line closed on 7 September 1964, triggering a mass demonstration, a sit-in on the track and other manifestations of hostility as the last trains operated.