Cleator Moor railway station

This article is about the original 1857 station. For its 1866 replacement, see Cleator Moor East railway station. For the rival 1879 station, see Cleator Moor West railway station.

Cleator Moor
General information
Location	Cleator Moor, Cumberland England
Coordinates	54.5232°N 3.5203°W / 54.5232; -3.5203
Grid reference	NY016152
Platforms	2
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway
Pre-grouping	LNWR & FR Joint Railway
Post-grouping	London, Midland and Scottish Railway
Key dates
1 July 1857	Opened[1]
1866	Closed to passengers, new station 600 yards west[2]
1960s	Closed completely
Location Cleator Moor Location in present-day Copeland Borough Show map of the former Borough of Copeland Cleator Moor Location in present-day Cumbria Show map of Cumbria

1904 railway junctions around Cleator Moor, Parton, Rowrah & Whitehaven

v t e Whitehaven, Cleator & Egremont Railway
Cleator and Workington Junction Railway Cumbrian Coast line to Carlisle Cockermouth and Workington Railway Marron Junction Workington Central Workington Main Bridgefoot Harrington Parton Halt Branthwaite Distington Distington Works Gilgarran Branch Ullock Parton Lamplugh Rowrah Whitehaven Summit Winder Whitehaven Tunnel Yeathouse Corkickle Eskett Mirehouse Junction Eskett Junction Moor Row Frizington St Bees Cleator Moor West Cleator Moor East St Bees Golf Halt Cleator Moor (first) Woodend Gillfoot Egremont Nethertown St Thomas Cross Platform Beckermet Mines Braystones Beckermet Sellafield Cumbrian Coast line to Barrow-in-Furness

The original Cleator Moor railway station was built by the Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway. It served the rapidly urbanising town of Cleator Moor, Cumbria, England.^[3][4]

History

The line was one of the fruits of the rapid industrialisation of West Cumberland in the second half of the nineteenth century. The station opened to passengers on 1 July 1857 on the line being developed from Moor Row to Rowrah.

Subsidence led the company to build a deviation line which curved round the west side of the station and the growing settlement, in a similar manner to what it was forced to do at Eskett a few miles to the east. They built a passenger station on the deviation line which would go on to be called Cleator Moor East.

When the deviation line - known locally as the Bowthorn Line - and station opened in 1866 the original station was closed to passengers and became "Cleator Moor Goods Depot", with its line known locally as the Crossfield Loop.^[5] It remained open for goods traffic until the 1960s.^[6][7][8]

Afterlife

Satellite images suggest the station site is Public Open Space. By 2008 the trackbed had been transformed into part of National Cycle Route 71.^[9]

Preceding station		Disused railways		Following station
Frizington Line and station closed		Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway		Moor Row Line and station closed

See also

• Furness Railway
• Cleator and Workington Junction Railway

References

1. Butt 1995, p. 63.
2. Suggitt 2008, p. 52.
3. Smith & Turner 2012, Map 26.
4. Jowett 1989, Map 36.
5. Joy 1983, p. 166.
6. Welbourn 2010, p. 111.
7. Broughton & Harris 1985, Carlisle-Barrow chapter.
8. Gammell 1994, p. 279.
9. Suggitt 2008, p. 60.

Sources

• Broughton, John; Harris, Nigel (October 1985). British Railways Past and Present: No. 1 Cumbria. Silver Link Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-947971-04-1.
• 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.
• Gammell, C. J. (May 1994). Kennedy, Rex (ed.). "Just a few lines... Cumbria". Steam Days (57). Bournemouth: Redgauntlet Publications. ISSN 0269-0020.
• 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.
• Joy, David (1983). Lake Counties (Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain). Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 094653702X.
• 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.
• Anderson, Paul (April 2002). Hawkins, Chris (ed.). "Dog in the Manger? The Track of the Ironmasters". British Railways Illustrated. 11 (7). Clophill: Irwell Press Ltd.
• 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.
• Bradshaw (1986) [1922]. Bradshaw's July 1922 Railway Guide (reprint). Guild Publishing London.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

External links

• Map of the line with photos, via RAILSCOT
• The station as a goods station on overlain OS maps surveyed from 1898, via National Library of Scotland
• The original station on an OS map surveyed in 1863, via National Library of Scotland
• The three closed stations on a 1948 OS Map, via npe maps
• The station, via Rail Map Online
• The station and line as a goods station, via railwaycodes
• Cleator Moor East station and deviation line, via railwaycodes
• The railways of Cumbria, via Cumbrian Railways Association
• Photos of Cumbrian railways, via Cumbrian Railways Association
• The railways of Cumbria, via Railways_of_Cumbria
• Cumbrian Industrial History, via Cumbria Industrial History Society
• The line's and station's Engineer's Line References, via railwaycodes.org.uk
• Furness Railtour using many West Cumberland lines 5 September 1954, via sixbellsjunction
• A video tour-de-force of the region's closed lines, via cumbriafilmarchive
• 1882 RCH Diagram showing the station, see page 173 of the pdf, via google
• Haematite, via earthminerals
• Mining in Cleator Moor, via Haig Pit