Carlisle Canal, Upperby & Kingmoor - Carlisle's Lost Locomotive Sheds

Carlisle has long stood as one of the great crossroads of Britain’s railways. At its peak in the mid-20th century, the city was home to not just one, but three major locomotive depots—Carlisle Canal, Upperby, and Kingmoor. Each shed had its own character, its own duties, and its own place in railway history. Yet today, they have all but vanished, leaving only scattered remains and fading memories.

In this video, we dive deep into the story of these three fascinating depots:

🚂 Carlisle Canal Shed – Built on the site of the old Carlisle Navigation Canal, it became a stronghold for North British Railway engines and later British Railways steam locomotives. Closing on 17 June 1963, it was the first of Carlisle’s sheds to fall to the axe of dieselisation. Today, the site has largely returned to nature, but you can still find physical traces—foundations of the coaling and watering tower, an inspection pit, the turntable wall, and even the old ramp steps.

🚂 Upperby Shed – Once the pride of the LNWR, Upperby was dramatically modernised with an 11-road roundhouse in 1958, one of the last great investments in steam at a time when the writing was already on the wall. Its final years were marked by rows of redundant engines in store, and it closed to steam in December 1966, officially ceasing depot operations in 1968. The roundhouse was demolished in 1979, the carriage sheds in 2016. Yet remarkably, the story has come full circle—in 2023, Locomotive Services Limited reopened part of the site as a maintenance base, bringing trains back to Upperby once again.

🚂 Kingmoor Depot – The largest and most important of Carlisle’s sheds, Kingmoor was a Caledonian Railway creation, rebuilt in brick at the turn of the 20th century and modernised in the 1930s with a mechanised coaling plant and even an engine-men’s hospital. In the 1960s, it stood alongside the massive Kingmoor Marshalling Yard, one of British Rail’s flagship freight projects. Steam survived here until 1 January 1968, making Kingmoor the last stronghold of Carlisle steam. The diesel depot that replaced it closed in 1987, but the site gained a new lease of life in 1998 when Direct Rail Services took it over. Today, Kingmoor remains an active depot—one of the few surviving links to Carlisle’s railway past.

Together, these three sheds tell the story of Carlisle’s rise as a railway powerhouse, the decline of steam, and the shift to modern traction. Though most of the buildings are gone, their history lingers—in the surviving foundations, in the locomotives that once called them home, and in the memories of railwaymen who worked them.

If you’re fascinated by lost railways, the romance of steam, and the changing face of Britain’s railway network, this is a story you won’t want to miss.

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