The Lancaster and Preston Junction Railway was an early British railway company, in Lancashire, England. It later merged with the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway.
The Lancaster and Preston Junction Railway Company (L&PJR) was created by Act of Parliament on 5 May 1837, to link the towns of Preston and Lancaster. The company planned to build its Preston terminus at Dock Street (off Pitt Street), near the Lancaster Canal, in the expectation that the rival North Union Railway (NUR) line from Wigan would have its terminus close by. In fact, the North Union built its station 200 yards (200 m) away, just south of Fishergate, in what seems to have been a tactical move to get the L&PJR to contribute towards the cost of a short tunnel and connecting line between the two railways. This marked the start of protracted feuding between the two companies for years to come. Eventually a deal was struck for the L&PJR to use the North Union station.
The Lancaster terminus was on the modern-day South Road, just south of the Lancaster Canal and the southern end of Penny Street.
The line was twenty miles (32 km) long and built by Joseph Locke. It opened on 25 June 1840, with a passenger service from the following day.
Extract from Wikipedia
The Lancaster Canal
"The Lancaster Canal is a canal in the north of England, originally planned to run from Westhoughton in Lancashire to Kendal in south Cumbria (then in Westmorland). The section around the crossing of the River Ribble was never completed, and much of the southern end leased to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, of which it is now generally considered part.
Of the canal north of Preston, only the section from Preston to Tewitfield near Carnforth in Lancashire is currently open to navigation for 42 miles (67.6 km.
The isolated northern part of the canal was finally connected to the rest of the English canal network in 2002 by the opening of the Ribble Link.
The remaining open part of the Lancaster Canal follows the same elevation contour on maps and is therefore free of locks."
link
Competition
Many railways provided competition for canals and often the railway company bought out the canal and ran it down. Unusually in the early days of this railway the canal's passenger boat service remained more popular due to problems with the position of the railway station in Preston and the fact that the canal went closer to the town of Garstang. In fact for a while the canal company took over the running of the railway.
Eventually however the railway became more successful and these days the canal is only used by leisure craft.
Current Railway Line
These days the line forms part of the West Coast Line (WCML) and has been electrified. The WCML is the most important intercity rail passenger route in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London, Coventry, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow and Edinburgh which have a combined metropolitan population of over 24 million people.
This section between Preston and Lancaster is 20 miles long and all intermediate stations between the two towns have closed.
The Bridge
The bridge is owned by Network Rail and although supported on stone pillars which may be original it has been modernised and the spans are concrete.
Aldcliffe road at this point is very close to the canal and the bridge has 2 very close spans, one across the canal and one across the road supported by a central pillar on the canal bank.
It is the 91st rail bridge between Preston and Lancaster and is less than a mile from Lancaster Station.
It has a reference of CGJ6/91 Aldcliffe Road on the rail line and is bridge 107 on the canal.