Prior to the construction of the Eden Valley Railway, in the 1840s, several schemes had been proposed which would have run to the Eden Valley; one was the "York & Carlisle Junction Railway", backed by the Great North of England Railway, which would have run from Northallerton to Barnard Castle then across the Pennines to Kirkby Stephen, after which two branches would have been formed to connect with the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway; one to Tebay and the other to Clifton. Another similar scheme was the "Northumberland & Lancashire Union" which would have run from Gateshead near Newcastle upon Tyne to Barnard Castle, and then as the York & Carlisle line across the Pennines via Kirkby Stephen to Tebay. Additionally the "Yorkshire and Glasgow Union Railway" was planned to run west from Thirsk through Wensleydale to Hawes, then north through the Mallerstang Valley to Kirkby Stephen, and then through the Eden Valley to Clifton via Appleby-in-Westmorland. Both the Yorkshire & Glasgow Union and part of the York & Carlisle Junction to Tebay were empowered by acts of Parliament in 1845 but the end of the Railway bubble of the 1840s meant that they were not built.