curved south on a chord connecting it to a north facing junction near Clifton, Cumbria connecting the line to Clifton and Lowther station on the Lancaster & Carlisle Railway. The line was built as a single track line and was worked by the Stockton and Darlington Railway from its inception, it opened for mineral trains on 8 April 1862, and for passengers on 9 June the same year. 1862 to 1923: NER Soon after opening the amalgamation of the railway into the Stockton and Darlington Railway along with the South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway and Frosterley and Stanhope Railway was sanctioned by an Act of Parliament on 30 June 1862. The following year the Stockton and Darlington merged into the North Eastern Railway, and the Eden Valley line too became part of that larger system. During the construction of the railway, in 1861, an act of Parliament was passed that would increase the importance of the Eden Valley Line. This was the act permitting the construction of the Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway, which by 1865 had been opened. It connected to the Cockermouth and Workington Railway, and hence the ports and industrialised iron-rich regions of the west Cumbrian coast (Workington, Whitehaven) were linked to the Lancaster and Carlisle line (operated by the London and North Western Railway) near Penrith close to the Eden Valley's own junction. This made the Eden Valley line a route of choice for transport of materials between the north east and north west of England. Permission to build a connection allowing trains from the north to run directly onto the Eden Valley line was obtained in 1862, and the new section opened in 1863, along with a new station for Clifton (renamed Clifton Moor in 1927) on the chord. Eden Valley passenger trains now ran via this northern track, and had running powers on the L&CR line, now going to Penrith. After 1874 the southern chord was abandoned. During the 1870s the Settle and Carlisle Railway was being constructed, which also ran through the upper Eden Valley. West of the station in Appleby in Westmorland a junction with the Eden Valley railway was built allowing trains travelling north to cross onto the westbound Eden Valley line. Further west the Settle line crossed over the Eden Valley line. 1923 to 1948: LNER Between 1923 and 1948 the line was part of the London and North