The railway companies provided much employment for local people and this brought about the construction of housing to accommodate the increased population.

On 15 February 2004, four men carrying out maintenance work on the line were struck and killed by a runaway wagon in the Tebay rail accident.

[3] In the early 1950s British Railways divided control of the former SD&LR between the North Eastern and London Midland regions, with Kirkby Stephen as the boundary.

[4] Local passenger trains were withdrawn between Kirkby Stephen and Tebay on 1 December 1952,[5] although steam-hauled summer Saturday services from the north-east to Blackpool continued to use the route until the end of the 1961 holiday season.

[11] The end of junction traffic at the station resulted in the adjoining Victorian railway-boom village reducing in size by 150 people.