It opened in 1869, and it involved a viaduct 1 mile 8 chains (1.8 km) long crossing the Solway Firth, as well as approach lines connecting existing railways on both sides.

In the late 1850s, business interests were concerned to improve transport facilities for iron ore being mined in the area of Canonbie, in south Dumfriesshire close to the English border.

Their intention was to bring the mineral to Annan Harbour (on the north shore of the Solway Firth), from where it could be forwarded by coastal shipping.

A bill for a line from Brayton to join the Whitehaven Junction at Flimby (thus making the SJR independent of the Maryport and Carlisle) did not match its advance notice and was therefore rejected by Parliament,[9] but led to a satisfactory agreement with the M&C.

[10][11] An Act was also passed authorising an increase in capital of £60,000 and further borrowing of £20,000: it also permitted the North British and the G&SWR to subscribe £100,000 each, should they so wish.

[12] The 1867 act (as well as removing the opening span from the viaduct design) also confirmed the agreement with the Maryport and Carlisle and allowed the Caledonian to subscribe on the same basis as the North British and the G&SWR.

[13] The Caledonian, alarmed at the possibility of the lucrative iron ore traffic being diverted off its system, acted (unlike the other companies) on the implicit invitation.

In September 1867, an agreement whereby the Caledonian subscribed to £60,000 of 5% preference shares in the Solway Junction and operated the line was ratified by the shareholders of both companies.

This argument won the day; although the Board of Trade confirmed its earlier stand that the traffic of Port Carlisle was not negligible,[18] Parliament was persuaded that it was insignificant in comparison to the projected traffic over the viaduct and as built the viaduct made no provision for ships to pass through it; this ended any commercial use of the harbour at Port Carlisle.

The Moss in its natural state was a raised mire "unsafe for cattle and horses", and considerable works had to be put in hand to establish a stable trackbed.

A trial trip was made on 26 June 1869, ahead of the Board of Trade inspection[19] and freight traffic started on 13 September 1869, with three mineral trains each way daily.

[22] A regular passenger service - four trains a day between Kirtlebridge and Brayton, with intermediate stations at Annan and Bowness - began on 8 August 1870.

In January 1881 an exceptionally cold spell lasted most of the month, and ice accumulated in the upper estuary and the rivers feeding it.

Sir Joseph Pease MP, noting that Brunlees had described the viaduct "as exactly the same in construction as the Tay Bridge" put a question in parliament to Joseph Chamberlain the President of the Board of Trade: "whether this Bridge was inspected previous to its opening by an engineer appointed by the Board of Trade; and, if so, whether such engineer reported upon the danger which might arise from the pressure of floating ice; and, what steps he intends to take before the Solway Bridge is again opened for traffic in order to secure public safety, in the case of a second bridge of the same construction, which has proved to be unable to stand the pressure of storms or flood, and which have been both duly inspected by officers of the Board of Trade previously to their being opened for public traffic?

"[34] [b]Major Marindin of the Railway Inspectorate conducted an enquiry to establish the cause of failure and hence make appropriate recommendations on the appropriate design of a reconstructed Solway Viaduct.

He reported that failure was not due to the pressure of a large mass of ice piled up and jammed against the structure, but was a result of cumulative piecemeal failures of individual columns hit by ice floes: when the momentum which would be acquired by a piece of ice twenty-seven yards square and in places six feet thick (the dimensions of one piece actually measured), upon a tide running at ten miles an hour is considered, it is not surprising that cast iron columns twelve inches in diameter, seven-eighths of an inch in thickness, which owing to the long-continued frost were in a very brittle state were unable to resist the shock.

"[37][c] Marindin's report noted that "This disaster furnishes a very convincing proof of the unreliability of small cast-iron columns when used for the piers of viaducts in positions where they are likely to be exposed to any blow or sudden shock" but drew a slightly different conclusion: that "it would be far better in future to avoid any such mode of construction."

[38] Although by August 1883 the viaduct reconstruction was sufficiently far advanced that construction traffic was run over it,[38] passenger services over the line did not resume until 1 May 1884.

In 1883 the SJR promoted a bill for a line to run from Brayton to Bassenthwaite Lake on the Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway and the Cleator and Workington Junction Railway promoted a bill to build a line from Calva Junction, immediately north of Workington, to Brayton.

[49] Grateful SJR shareholders voted the directors £100 each and the secretary £1000; that Christmas the chairman gave £70 of his £100 'for distribution among the men' (estimated to number about 50) .

The work was suspended on the outbreak of World War I, which saw increased use of the viaduct for iron-ore and pig-iron traffic from West Cumbria to Scotland.

[51] It was announced that stations south of the viaduct were to be closed from 1 February 1917 [52] but this decision was promptly rescinded[53] The creation of a large munition works at Eastriggs, to the east of Annan, gave the line additional traffic; including (in May 1917) the Royal Train, carrying King George and Queen Mary on a four-day tour of that and other munitions factories.

[55] When a local MP asked a parliamentary question on the closure in July 1921, the Minister of Transport said that the Caledonian were awaiting an abatement in post-war prices before they could consider the necessary repairs; the traffic the viaduct might carry was now much reduced, and such as remained could easily be routed via Carlisle.

[57] In the time between closure and demolition the viaduct was used as a de facto footbridge across the Firth by trespassing pedestrians – most notably on Sundays, when drinking establishments in Bowness were permitted to open but those in Annan were not.

Arnott, Young and Company purchased the bridge and dismantled it; much of the material found a second use, and some of the metal was used by the Japanese forces in the Sino-Japanese War.

[2] During World War II an RAF airfield was created near Creca, north of Annan, and part of the original line from Kirtlebridge to that point was reinstated.

The final locomotive considered to belong to the SJR route was a small-wheeled 0-6-0 saddle tank, built by Manning Wardle and acquired second hand for shunting work.