Sodor

The first railway on the island, dating from 1806, was a horse-worked plateway from Cros-ny-Cuirn to Balladwail,[6] a port south-east of Crovan's Gate, which is no longer rail-connected. Pack horses brought copper ore from a mine in the mountains down to Cros-ny-Cuirn, where it was loaded into wagons for the journey to the port. In 1820 the Crovan's Gate Mining Company extended the line up the valley to the mine by building a series of five inclined planes. At the same time, the rest of the 1806 line was rebuilt with fish-belly edge rail. The line continued in use until the Skarloey Railway was built, after which it was abandoned, although the overgrown remains can still be seen to this day.

The second railway, the Cronk and Harwick Railway, was established in 1830 as a coal railway line transporting coal to the Harwick docks as well taking miners to work. In 1854 the coal played out and the mines and railway closed. Its locomotives and rolling stock were sold off to other lines in the UK.

A government-sponsored amalgamation of the standard-gauge railways in the Island occurred in 1914 to build a strategic railway for coastal defence called the North Western Railway. The railways concerned were:

* the *Sodor & Mainland Railway* (1853–1914) which ran from Ballahoo to Kirk Ronan
* the *Tidmouth, Knapford & Elsbridge Railway* (1883–1914) from Tidmouth to Elsbridge (the railway was known as the *Knapford & Elsbridge Railway* until 1908 when line extended to Tidmouth)
* the *Wellsworth & Suddery Railway* (1870–1914), which ran from Crosby to Brendam, with an extension from Crosby to Knapford in 1912 to amalgamate with the *Tidmouth, Knapford & Elsbridge Railway*

The North Western Railway has had running rights into Barrow Central Station since the agreement with the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1925. There is a Scherzer rolling lift bridge of 120 ft (37 m) span and double track over the Walney Channel, designed by Topham Hatt and erected in 1915. The NWR built its headquarters at Vicarstown in 1915, but the administrative offices relocated to Tidmouth in 1926. Until the construction of the Jubilee Road Bridge in 1977, the NWR had rights for a car-ferry and worked an intensive and profitable service. British Rail had running powers over the Bridge to operate the joint NWR/BR suburban service from Barrow to Norramby.

On through- or express-trains, engines from the NWR are detached at Barrow and "Other Railway" engines take over. Since 1925 the NWR has also had its own loco shed, turntable and servicing facility here. There is also a joint goods-yard for exchange traffic.

With the nationalisation of the railways across the United Kingdom, the North Western Railway became the North Western Region of British Railways. It was allowed to keep a large degree of independence from the rest of the network, which explains why steam traction survived. The other railways on the island were not affected by the nationalisation. Since privatisation, the railway has again become the North Western Railway Company and, unlike most post-privatisation train companies, is responsible not just for the running of the freight and passenger operations, but also for the maintenance of the track and of the infrastructure of the