Stainmore Summit

54°30′33″N 2°11′21″W

New sign marking spot of old one

Snowploughs on the line in 1927

Stainmore Summit is the highest point on the trans-Pennine South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway, also known as the Stainmore Railway in Northern England. Located on Stainmore between Barras and Bowes stations, the railway over the summit was the highest in England at 1,370 ft (418 m) until its closure in 1962.^[1] The location was marked by a famous cast-iron sign which is now preserved at the Darlington Railway Centre and Museum.

Whilst there wasn't a station at Stainmore, trains did halt here to let relatives of the railway workers on and off the trains to enable them to get transported off the summit. The railway had several cottages at the summit.^[2]

This pass is commonly referred to by geographers as the Stainmore Gap.^[3]

References

1. Lloyd, Chris (16 October 2015). "Summit to talk about". The Northern Echo. Retrieved 31 December 2018.
2. "Srainmore". disused-stations.org.uk. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
3. Burl, Aubrey (1988). "7: Without Sharp North......Alexander Thom and the great stone circles of Cumbria". In Ruggles, C L N (ed.). Records in stone : papers in memory of Alexander Thom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 181. ISBN 0-521-33381-4.

External links

• Photographs of the summit railway
• Map showing location
• "More photographs of the summit". Archived from the original on 12 January 2007.
• Newspaper article about the summit railway