Egremont railway station

Egremont railway station was built by the Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway as the first southern terminus of what would become the Moor Row to Sellafield branch. In 1878 the company was bought out by the LNWR and Furness Railway who operated the line jointly until grouping in 1923.

Egremont
General information
LocationEgremont, Cumbria, Copeland
England
Coordinates54.4861°N 3.5289°W / 54.4861; -3.5289
Grid referenceNY010111
Platforms2[1]
Other information
StatusDisused
History
Original companyWhitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway
Pre-groupingLNWR & FR Joint Railway
Post-groupingLondon, Midland and Scottish Railway
Key dates
1 July 1857Opened
7 January 1935Closed to passengers
11 March 1940Reopened to workmen's trains[2]
8 April 1940Closed
6 May 1946Reopened
16 June 1947Closed, but remained open for workmen's trains[3]
6 September 1965Workmen's trains ended[4]
11 December 1969School service ended, station closed[5]
Location
Egremont is located in the former Borough of Copeland
Egremont
Egremont
Location in present-day Copeland Borough
Egremont is located in Cumbria
Egremont
Egremont
Location in present-day Cumbria

The station was towards the northern end of the town, in Cumbria, England.[6][7]

History

The line was one of the fruits of the rapid industrialisation of West Cumberland in the second half of the nineteenth century, opening to passengers on 1 July 1857.

The station remained as the railway's southern terminus until 1869 when the company, in partnership with the Furness Railway, built a southern extension from Egremont to the coast line at Sellafield, with an intermediate station at Beckermet. This enabled traffic from the Cleator Moor and Rowrah areas, especially iron ore, to move much more readily southwards.

Services

In 1922 eight northbound passenger trains left Egremont, two connected with trains to Whitehaven at Moor Row, all the others continued there without a change. A Saturdays Only evening train terminated at Moor Row. The southbound service was similar. There were no Sunday trains.[8]

The LNWR and Furness Joint Railway divided traffic responsibilities so that passenger traffic through the station was usually worked by the Furness Railway.[9][10]

A three times a day unadvertised workmen's service from Moor Row to Beckermet Mines began on 15 January 1912, calling at Woodend, Egremont and St Thomas Cross Platform.[11] It is not yet clear when this came to an end or if other services were provided.

Goods traffic was typical of an industrial area, sustaining sidings and goods depots long after passenger services were withdrawn.[12]

In 1946, the Milk Marketing Board opened a dairy on the eastern side of the goods yard. The dairy had a siding where milk tanks were filled and was worked by its own diesel shunter. These tanks were worked to Carlisle and then south down the West Coast Mainline to London.

Mineral traffic was the dominant flow, though this was subject to considerable fluctuation with trade cycles. A considerable amount of iron ore travelled south through and from Egremont bound for the furnaces of Millom and Barrow-in-Furness.

Stations and signalling along the line south of Rowrah were changed during the Joint regime to conform to Furness Railway standards.[13]

Rundown and closure

The station closed on 7 January 1935 when normal passenger traffic ended along the line.

Life flickered briefly in Spring 1940 when workmen's trains were reinstated to support a period of high activity building the Royal Ordnance Factory at Drigg, but that lasted less than a month.[4]

A public Sellafield-Egremont-Moor Row-Whitehaven service was reinstated on 6 May 1946, only to be "suspended" on 16 June 1947, a victim of the post-war fuel crisis. Bradshaw still listed the service as Suspended in 1949.[4] It was never reinstated.[14]

Workmen's trains to Sellafield ended on 6 September 1965.[15]

Remarkably, a wholly new unadvertised passenger service started in September 1964, conveying pupils to Wyndham School in Egremont from Seascale in the morning then home after school. Initially this comprised eight steam-hauled carriages, ending typically formed of a pair of Derby Lightweight 2-car units. Sources differ on when this service ended:- 3 March 1969[2] or 11 December 1969.[5]

Iron Ore from Beckermet Mines continued to pass through the station site until 1980, after which the line was closed and lifted.[16][17]

Afterlife

By 2013 satellite images appeared to show that the route through Egremont was a sliver of Public Open Space. The route of the line south of Egremont through to the junction with the Cumbrian Coast Line can be traced on satellite images with some ease, forming the western boundary of the village of Thornhill, passing to the west of the centre of the village of Beckermet and curving to join the coast line between the bridge over the River Ehen and Sellafield Station.

Preceding station   Disused railways   Following station
Woodend
Line and station closed		   LNWR & FR Joint Railway   St Thomas Cross Platform
Line and station closed

See also

References
  1. Anderson 2002, p. 310.
  2. Croughton, Kidner & Young 1982, p. 142.
  3. Butt 1995, p. 90.
  4. Quayle 2007, p. 87.
  5. Quayle 2007, pp. 87–8.
  6. Smith & Turner 2012, Map 26.
  7. Jowett 1989, Map 36.
  8. Bradshaw 1985, p. 510.
  9. McGowan Gradon 2004, p. 12.
  10. Quayle 2007, p. 38.
  11. Robinson 1989, p. 39.
  12. Quayle 2007, p. 79.
  13. W McGowan Gradon's 1942 Furness Railway study, via cumberlandarchives.co.uk
  14. Marshall 1981, p. 116.
  15. Suggitt 2008, p. 56.
  16. Welbourn 2010, p. 112.
  17. Marsh & Garbutt 2002, p. 148.

Sources
  • Anderson, Paul (April 2002). Hawkins, Chris (ed.). "Dog in the Manger? The Track of the Ironmasters". British Railways Illustrated. Clophill: Irwell Press Ltd. 11 (7).
  • Bradshaw, George (1985) [July 1922]. Bradshaw's General Railway and Steam Navigation guide for Great Britain and Ireland: A reprint of the July 1922 issue. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-8708-5. OCLC 12500436.
  • Butt, R. V. J. (October 1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199. OL 11956311M.
  • Croughton, Godfrey; Kidner, Roger W.; Young, Alan (1982). Private and Untimetabled Railway Stations, Halts and Stopping Places X 43. Headington, Oxford: The Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-281-1.
  • Jowett, Alan (March 1989). Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-086-0. OCLC 22311137.
  • McGowan Gradon, W. (2004) [1952]. The Track of the Ironmasters: A History of the Cleator and Workington Junction Railway. Grange-over-Sands: Cumbrian Railways Association. ISBN 0-9540232-2-6.
  • Marsh, John; Garbutt, John (April 2002). Images of Cumbrian Railways. Sutton Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-7509-2834-4.
  • Quayle, Howard (2007). Whitehaven: The Railways and Waggonways of a Unique Cumberland Port. Pinner: Cumbrian Railways Association. ISBN 978-0-9540232-5-6.
  • Robinson, Peter W. (February 1989). Peascod, Michael (ed.). "Workmen's Trains to Beckermet Mines". Cumbrian Railways. Pinner: Cumbrian Railways Association. 4 (3). ISSN 1466-6812.
  • Smith, Paul; Turner, Keith (2012). Railway Atlas Then and Now. Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7110-3695-6.
  • Suggitt, Gordon (2008). Lost Railways of Cumbria (Railway Series). Newbury: Countryside Books. ISBN 978-1-84674-107-4.
  • Welbourn, Nigel (September 2010). Lost Lines: Joint Railways. Shepperton: Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7110-3428-0.

Further reading
  • British Railways Pre-Grouping Atlas And Gazetteer. Shepperton: Ian Allan Publishing. 1997 [1958]. ISBN 0-7110-0320-3.
  • Atterbury, Paul (2009). Along Lost Lines. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-2706-7.
  • Bairstow, Martin (1995). Railways In The Lake District. Martin Bairstow. ISBN 1-871944-11-2.
  • Bowtell, Harold D. (1989). Rails through Lakeland: An Illustrated Journey of the Workington-Cockermouth-Keswick-Penrith Railway 1847-1972. Wyre, Lancashire: Silverling Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-947971-26-2.
  • Joy, David (1983). Lake Counties (Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain). Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 094653702X.
  • Marshall, John (1981). Forgotten Railways: North West England. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-8003-6.
  • Western, Robert (2001). The Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway OL113. Usk: Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-564-0.
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