Hincaster branch line
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox rail line Template:Hincaster branch
The Hincaster branch was a single-track railway branch line of the Furness Railway which ran from Template:Stnlnk on the Furness main line to a junction with the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway (later the London and North Western Railway) at Hincaster.[1] Intermediate stations were provided at Template:Stnlnk and Heversham, with the main engineering work being a substantial 26-arch viaduct over the River Bela near Sandside.[2]
Traffic
The Template:Convert line was built primarily for use by mineral trains carrying coke and iron ore from County Durham to various ironworks in and around Barrow-in-Furness which had previously had to travel (and reverse) via the busy junction at Template:Stnlnk.[3][4] The branch was opened to goods traffic on 3 June 1876[5] and also carried a passenger service between Template:Stnlnk and Template:Stnlnk known locally as the Kendal Tommy.[6] Both the Furness Railway, and the Midland Railway, considered building a line from Hincaster Junction to Template:Rws (Hawes Junction) on the Settle–Carlisle line to connect with the Wensleydale Railway, in an effort to shorten the route for coke trains, and to prevent the traffic having to use the main line section between Template:Rws and Template:Rws. It was noted that this line would a challenge as "considerable tunnelling" would be required.[7][8]
Due to the railway rising from Sandside where it was at sea level to Template:Convert in under Template:Convert (a constant gradient of 1-in-50), the coke traffic still travelled for reversals at Carnforth. Heavier traffic at Carnforth during the First World War prompted the railway company to employ adequate motive power for the trains to use the Hincaster branch.[9]
Closure
The passenger service ended on 4 May 1942 and the track between Sandside and Hincaster Junction was lifted in 1966 (through traffic having ceased three years earlier).[10][9] A short stub from Arnside to Sandside lasted until 1972 to serve local quarries.[11]
Sections of the old trackbed survive and are used as a footpath and cycleway, though the viaduct and both intermediate stations have been demolished.
Notes
References
- Conolly, W.P. [1958](1997) British Railways Pre-Grouping Atlas and Gazetteer, 5th Ed., Shepperton: Ian Allan, Template:ISBN.
- Marshall, J (1981) Forgotten Railways - North-West England, David & Charles (Publishers) Ltd, Newton Abbott, Template:ISBN.
External links
- Railscot - Hincaster Branch
- photo of train on Bela Viaduct about 1949
- photo of Bela Viaduct from Haverbrack Hill
- ↑ Conolly, 1997, p.24
- ↑ "Bela Viaduct" Old Cumbria Gazetteer; Retrieved 26 June 2017
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- ↑ Marshall, p.104
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- ↑ Heversham - A Website history by R.K Bingham www.heversham.org; Retrieved 2009-06-24
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