Corkickle railway station

Last updated

Location map Borough of Copeland.svg
Red pog.svg
Corkickle
Location in Copeland, Cumbria
Cumbria UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Corkickle
Location in Cumbria, England
Corkickle
National Rail logo.svg
Corkickle railway station, Cumbria (geograph 3563943).jpg
General information
Location Corkickle, Cumberland
England
Coordinates 54°32′29″N3°34′55″W / 54.5414869°N 3.5820824°W / 54.5414869; -3.5820824
Grid reference NX977174
Owned by Network Rail
Managed by Northern Trains
Platforms1
Tracks1
Other information
Station codeCKL
Classification DfT category F2
History
Original company Whitehaven and Furness Junction Railway
Pre-grouping Furness Railway
Post-grouping London, Midland and Scottish Railway
British Rail (London Midland Region)
Key dates
19 July 1849Opened as Whitehaven Newtown
3 December 1855Resited and renamed Whitehaven Corkickle
1957Renamed Corkickle
Passengers
2019/20Increase2.svg 68,974
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Corkickle railway station is a railway station serving the suburb of Corkickle near Whitehaven in Cumbria, England. It is on the Cumbrian Coast Line, which runs between Carlisle and Barrow-in-Furness. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains. The station opened on 3 December 1855, [1] and is at the southern end of the 1,219 m (3,999 ft) tunnel from Whitehaven. Between 1855 and 1957, the station was known as Whitehaven Corkickle. [1] [2]

Contents

Facilities

The station building survives as a private residence. The station is a single platform and has shelters, display information and disabled access.

Services

Northern Trains
Route 6
Cumbrian Coast, Furness
& Windermere lines
BSicon KHSTa.svg
Carlisle
BSicon HST.svg
Dalston
BSicon HST.svg
Wigton
BSicon HST.svg
Aspatria
BSicon HST.svg
Maryport
BSicon HST.svg
Flimby
BSicon HST.svg
Workington
BSicon HST.svg
Harrington
BSicon HST.svg
Parton
BSicon HST.svg
Whitehaven
BSicon HST.svg
Corkickle
BSicon HST.svg
St Bees
BSicon pHST.svg
Nethertown
BSicon pHST.svg
Braystones
BSicon HST.svg
Sellafield
BSicon HST.svg
Seascale
BSicon HST.svg
Drigg
BSicon INT.svg
Ravenglass
BSicon lDAMPF.svg
BSicon HST.svg
Bootle
BSicon HST.svg
Silecroft
BSicon HST.svg
Millom
BSicon HST.svg
Green Road
BSicon HST.svg
Foxfield
BSicon HST.svg
Kirkby-in-Furness
BSicon HST.svg
Askam
BSicon HST.svg
Barrow-in-Furness
BSicon HST.svg
Roose
BSicon HST.svg
Dalton
BSicon HST.svg
Ulverston
BSicon HST.svg
Cark & Cartmel
BSicon HST.svg
Kents Bank
BSicon HST.svg
Grange-over-Sands
BSicon HST.svg
Arnside
BSicon HST.svg
Silverdale
BSicon HST.svg
Carnforth
BSicon STR.svg
BSicon KHSTa.svg
Windermere
BSicon STR.svg
BSicon HST.svg
Staveley
BSicon STR.svg
BSicon HST.svg
Burneside
BSicon STR.svg
BSicon HST.svg
Kendal
BSicon STR.svg
BSicon HST.svg
Oxenholme Lake District
BSicon BS2l.svg
BSicon BS2r.svg
BSicon HST.svg
Lancaster
BSicon HST.svg
Preston
BSicon HST.svg
Chorley
BSicon HST.svg
Bolton
BSicon INT.svg
Deansgate
Metrolink generic.svg
BSicon HST.svg
Manchester Oxford Road
BSicon INT.svg
Manchester Piccadilly
Metrolink generic.svg
BSicon KINTe.svg
Manchester Airport
Metrolink generic.svg BSicon FLUG.svg
Braystones & Nethertown
are request stops.

Monday to Saturdays there is hourly service northbound to Carlisle and southbound to Barrow-in-Furness. There are no trains after 21:00 on Mondays-Saturdays, [3] but since the May 2018 timetable change a Sunday service now operates (for the first time since 1976) from mid-morning until early evening.

Preceding station National Rail logo.svg National Rail Following station
Whitehaven   Northern Trains
Cumbrian Coast Line / Windermere branch line
  St Bees
 Historical railways 
Whitehaven   Whitehaven and Furness Junction Railway   St Bees

Freight

The area immediately south of the station was for many years a busy freight location, handling haematite ore traffic from Moor Row mine as well as chemical tankers up & down the incline at the nearby Preston Street goods depot (the one time W&FJR passenger terminus) and associated yard. [4] Two signal boxes (Corkickle No. 1 & No. 2) [5] [6] supervised the sidings, as well as controlling access to and from the incline and the Moor Row branch (the surviving portion of the former Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway line to Egremont & Sellafield). Although sufficiently busy to require its own resident shunting locomotive well into the 1970s, the gradual loss of traffic from the early 1980s onwards saw facilities run down and following the demise of Preston Street depot, the yard eventually closed (along with both signal boxes, which had been replaced by standard LMR-designed structures in 1958–59) [7] on 15/16 February 1997. [8] Today no trace remains of the sidings or either signal box, only the one surviving running line southwards towards St Bees & Sellafield.

The Corkickle Brake

Corkickle Brake, showing the winding house on the skyline Corkickle Rope Incline Wagon Hoist.jpg
Corkickle Brake, showing the winding house on the skyline

In 1881 the Corkickle Brake, a roped incline 525 yards (480 m) in length and with gradients of between 1 in 5.2 and 1 in 6.6 was built from the Furness Railway main line, a short distance to the south of Corkickle station, to the Earl of Lonsdale's Croft Pit. [9]

The 'brake' closed in 1931 due to the worsening financial situation of the colliery's owners, Lonsdale's Whitehaven Colliery Co. [9] In May 1955, the incline was re-opened, this time to serve the factory of Marchon Products - a subsidiary of Albright and Wilson - at Kells. It was used mainly to haul rail tanker wagons containing sulphuric acid from the main line - by now in the ownership of British Railways - to the Marchon factory. The Corkickle Brake closed for good on 31 October 1986 when it was the last commercial roped incline in Britain. [10] The task of transporting acid and other chemicals was taken over by road tankers. [11]

References

  1. 1 2 Quick (2009), p. 410.
  2. British Railways (1957/8)
  3. GB Rail Timetable (December 2019 Edition), Table 100
  4. Class 25s - Around Barrow Derby Sulzers, Retrieved 2013-10-03
  5. D. Allen and C.J. Woolstenholmes, A Pictorial Survey of London Midland Signalling, OPC, 1996, p. 123. ISBN   0-86093-523-X
  6. British Railways Layout Plans of the 1950s, Vol.6 West Coast Main Line (Euxton Junction to Mossband) and branches.Signalling Record Society 1993, p.44. ISBN   1-873228-05-8.
  7. Quayle (2006), p. 85.
  8. Quayle (2006), p. 93.
  9. 1 2 Quayle (2006), p. 60.
  10. Colin E Mountford "Rope haulage - the forgotten element of railway history" in Early Railways - proc of the First International Railway Conference. Pub Newcomen Society 1998
  11. Quayle (2006), pp. 61–65.

Sources