Archive Collections

This page has information about the Cumbrian Railways Association’s own physical archive material, plus other useful archive resources.

Archive Collection of the Cumbrian Railways Association

The CRA’s archive collection is deposited at Kendal Archive Centre, County Offices, Kendal, LA9 4RQ. Listings of all but the most recent deposits of the Association’s archive holdings may be found on the National Archives website.

Other Railway Archives in Cumbria

One of the most important deposits of railway material at the County Record Offices was deposited by British Rail about 1976. It consists of a vast number of engineering and architectural plans of land, buildings and infrastructure and is split between the offices at Barrow and Carlisle and which originally came from the FR/LMS/BR London Midland Civil Engineer’s Office at Barrow. Furness area material is held at Barrow, West Cumberland plans at Carlisle.

For information about access and services of Cumbria Archives please click HERE.

A wide selection of Cumbrian images, including railways and related subjects, can be found on the erstwhile Cumbria County Council’s IMAGE BANK which is a fully searchable resource.

Local studies libraries in Cumbria also hold much material of interest to the railway historian, including published works, newspapers, photographs, trade directories, census reports and much more. The principal local collections are held at Carlisle, Kendal, Barrow and Whitehaven, with significant collections also at Penrith and Workington. Other libraries in the county may also have material relevant to their immediate local area.

Other archive resources for Cumbrian rail history:

The National Archives

The principal alternative location of archive material relating to the history of the English-based railways of Cumbria is the National Archives at Kew. Most important are the surviving official records of the various railway companies including minutes of meetings of the Boards of Directors and committees.

The National Archives of Scotland

The official records of the Scottish-based railways which operated lines from Scotland into Carlisle, and various local lines in the north of Cumbria, are to be found in the National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh. A pdf file listing of some Cumbrian-related material may be downloaded below.

Other County Archive collections

It occasionally happens that significant collections of archives in County Record Offices may be found outside the area to which they relate. One of these locations is the Cheshire Archives and Local Studies service which was the recipient when British Rail was seeking to deposit large quantities of records from its offices in Crewe in the 1980s. Some of these have been extracted from the Chester catalogues for the CRA by member Mr P J McCarthy and this list may be downloaded as a pdf file below.