Furness Railway
Barrow-Fleetwood
Services
- This page is devoted to
postcards of ships on the Barrow-Fleetwood service of the Furness
Railway. The
Table below gives
links to complete postcard history pages on selected individual
ships. Below the table are
postcards
of the fleet in
chronological order, preceded by a
brief route history including a
route
diagram. At the
bottom of the page are shown some items of
contemporary advertising material.
-
- The first railway to reach
the a port on the North West coast of England was the the Furness
Railway at Barrow on Furness. Railway companies were not empowered
to run shipping services at this stage, so the Barrow Steam Navigation
Co was formed to start service from Barrow to Belfast. Both the
Midland Railway and the Furness Railway had interests
in the Barrow SN. In 1904, the Midland Railway's purpose-built
port at Heysham was opened, with direct rail connection. Four
new steamers were built to open services to Belfast and Douglas
(Isle of Man). In 1907, the Barrow SN was taken over by the Midland
Railway, and the
City
of Belfast
and
Duchess
of Devonshire
joined the fleet, mainly used as relief and summer extra vessels. Furness
Railway vessels used on the lakes of Windermere and Coniston
will be covered on a separate page.
-
-
- Ships on This Page:-
- Lady
Evelyn
- Lady
Margaret
- Philomel
- Lady
Moyra
-
- Associated Pages:-
- British
Railways
- Header page for all UK railway-owned services
- Isle of
Man SP Co
- Lancashire
& Yorkshire Railway - Fleetwood-Belfast services
- Midland
Railway
- Heysham-Belfast & Heysham-Douglas services
- London
Midland & Scottish Railway - Heysham-Belfast services
- Isle of
Man SP Co
- British
Railway Steamers
- British
Ferry Postcards
- Ferry
Postcards Header Page
- Simplon Postcards
Home Page
-
- References:-
- Maritime Heritage
- Barrow
& Morecambe Bay by Raymond Sankey (Silver Link, 1986)
- Railway Heritage
- The
Furness Railway by K.J.Norman (Silver Link, 1994)
- Merchant Fleets
No.25 - Britain's
Railway Steamers by Duncan Haws (1993)
- Railway &
Other Steamers - by Duckworth & Langmuir
A Brief Route History
- The Furness Railway was
a relatively minor English company, which founded its early prosperity
on the carriage of iron ore. As this traffic declined towards
the end of the 19th Century, the Company sought to increase the
tourist passenger traffic to the English Lake District, the area
in which its trains operated. In 1900 they introduced a passenger
ferry service across Morecambe Bay, between Barrow and Fleetwood.
There were tram connections onwards from Fleetwood to Blackpool,
as shown on the contemporary map below. This service operated
successfully, using a total of four paddlesteamers, until the
outbreak of war in 1914. The service was not revived after the
war.
Furness Railway Fleet
List
-
-
-
- Lady Evelyn
-
- The first Barrow-Fleetwood
boat was the Lady Evelyn, acquired to inaugurate the service
in 1900. She had been built by Scotts of Kinghorn for the service,
and was so successful that she was lengthened by 30ft in 1904
to increase passenger accommodation. She remained with the Company
until requisitioned by the Admiralty in 1914. After the war,
she was sold for Bristol Channel service, eventually becoming
the Brighton Belle of P & A Campbell. She was lost
at Dunkirk in 1940.
Official Furness Railway postcards
from Series 20 (images link to larger copies)
Sankey
postcard serial 570 of Lady Evelyn, using one of the photos used as an
official card above (image links to larger copy)
Sankey
postcard taken on board Lady Evelyn, on September 10th, 1909
(image links to larger copy)
Frith
postcard serial 64427 of Lady Evelyn, leaving Fleetwood (image
links to larger copy)
Lady Margaret
- Due to the success of
Lady Evelyn, a second paddlesteamer was acquired in 1903
from P&A Campbell. She was the Lady Margaret of 1895,
which retained her name in Furness service. She was larger and
faster than Lady Evelyn, but was sold to the Admiralty
in 1908 for tender duties, and was broken up in 1923. She had
a short history with both civilian operators, but references
are not clear as to why both should discard her so soon. It is
suggested that she was heavy on fuel in Campbell's days (who
sold her in preference to the much inferior Bonnie Doon),
so maybe Furness also found this to be a problem.
-
Frith's
Series postcard of Lady Margaret, posted on June 22nd,
1908.
The card is tinted to
show the Furness colours of grey hull and buff funnel (image links to
larger copy)
Unidentified
photographic postcard of Lady Margaret (image links to larger
copy)
H.E.Howorth
(Fleetwood) postcard of Lady Margaret (image links to larger
copy)
Art
Publishing Co (Glasgow) postcard of Lady Margaret posted 16/07/1906
(image links to larger copy)
Philomel
- Furness needed a replacement
for the Lady Margaret which was sold in 1908. They acquired
the elderly General Steam Navigation steamer Philomel,
which had been built in 1889. She required considerable expense
before entering service, but soon acquired the local nickname
"Full-o'-smell". After only two years in service, her
boilers needed replacement, which was to cost almost as much
as her purchase price. Furness were unable to sell her for further
service, and she was scrapped in 1913.
I do
not have a contemporary postcard release of the Philomel, but this is a
modern Frith's Series postcard, serial number 59940, using a photograph
taken in 1908 (image links to larger copy)
Lady Moyra
- The Furness Railway again
needed a replacement steamer for the 1910 season, following the
boiler problems of Philomel. They planned to buy the magnificent
Barry Railway vessel Devonia for £22,750 (Philomel
had cost £5250), but the condition of the machinery was
deemed unacceptable. Money was authorised to repair the Philomel,
until the Devonia's sistership Gwalia was offered at the same
price of £22,750. She received a blue hull in Furness service and the new name Lady Moyra. She operated
until she was requisitioned at the start of WW1. After the war,
she joined Lady Evelyn/Brighton Belle in the P&A Campbell
fleet as the Brighton Queen, and she was also lost at
Dunkirk, three days after her fleet mate on 31st May 1940.
This
is an official Furness Railway postcard of Lady Moyra
from Series 20.
Notice the blue hull in
the photo, all other ships being light grey (images link to larger
copies)
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