Woodend railway station

Woodend railway station (formally known as "Woodend for Cleator and Bigrigg") was planned by the Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway on its Template:Rws to Template:Rws branch, but by the time the station opened the company had been bought out by the LNWR and Furness Railway who operated the line jointly until grouping in 1923.

The station was in the hamlet of Wood End and served the villages in its full name, in Cumbria, England.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

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 was a later addition, opening to passengers on 1 March 1880.

Services

In 1922 eight northbound passenger trains called at Woodend, two connected with trains to Template:Rws at Template:Rws, 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.Template:Sfn

The LNWR and Furness Joint Railway divided traffic responsibilities so that passenger traffic through the station was usually worked by the Furness Railway.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

A three times a day unadvertised workmen's service from Template:Rws to Template:Rws began on 15 January 1912, calling at Woodend, Egremont and Template:Rws.Template:Sfn It is not yet clear when this came to an end or if other workmen's services were provided.

Goods traffic was typical of an industrial area, sustaining sidings and goods depots long after passenger services were withdrawn.Template:Sfn

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 Woodend 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.

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.Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn It was never reinstated.Template:Sfn

One authority states that unadvertised workmen's trains were withdrawn on 7 November 1955,Template:Sfn Two other sources, both with local knowledge, state that a workmen's service was started from Moor Row in 1953, calling at Woodend, Egremont and Beckermet en route to Sellafield for the nuclear plant. This service lasted until 6 September 1965.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnThis was the end for passenger services at Woodend.

Declining quantities of freight continued to pass through the station site. The line south of Beckermet Quarry was taken out of use in January 1970, removing the possibility of diversionary or other through traffic to Sellafield and beyond.Template:Sfn The final traffic was iron ore from Beckermet Mine. The mine closed on 3 October 1980, with the line from the site to Corkickle through Woodend closing on 1 November 1980, laying unused until it was lifted in 1993.Template:Sfn

Afterlife

By 2008 Woodend station house was a private residence.Template:Sfn

Template:Disused Rail Start |- | rowspan="1" style="vertical-align: middle; text-align:center; border-left: 0px none; border-right: 1px #aaa solid; border-top: 1px #aaa solid; border-bottom:0px none;"| Template:Rws
Line and station closed | style="background:#Template:LNWR colour; color:inherit; border-left: 0px none; border-right: 0px none; border-top:1px #aaa solid; border-bottom:0px none;" |   | rowspan="1" style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; border-left: 1px #aaa solid; border-right: 1px #aaa solid; border-top:solid 1px #aaa; border-bottom:0px none;" | LNWR & Furness Joint Railway | style="background:#Template:LNWR colour; color:inherit; border-left: 0px none; border-right: 0px none; border-top:1px #aaa solid; border-bottom:0px none;" |   | rowspan="1" style="vertical-align: middle; text-align:center; border-left: 1px #aaa solid; border-right: 0px none; border-top: 1px #aaa solid; border-bottom:0px none;"|Egremont
Line and station closed |}

See also

• Furness Railway
• Cleator and Workington Junction Railway
• Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway

References

Sources

• Template:Bradshaw-1922July
• Template:Croughton-PrivateStations

Further reading

• Template:IanAllan-PreGroup-Atlas1998

External links

• Map of the line with photos, via RAILSCOT
• The station on overlain OS maps surveyed from 1898, via National Library of Scotland
• The station on a 1948 OS Map, via npe maps
• 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
• Haematite, via earthminerals