Smardale railway station was a minor station on the

South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway The South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway (SD&LUR) built a railway line linking the Stockton & Darlington Railway near Bishop Auckland with the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway (the West Coast Main Line) at Tebay, via Barnard Castle, Stainmore S ...

between

Tebay Tebay is a village and civil parish in Cumbria, England, within the historic borders of Westmorland. It lies in the upper Lune Valley, at the head of the Lune Gorge. The parish had a population of 728 in the 2001 census, increasing to 776 at th ...

and Kirkby Stephen East. It served the villages of

Smardale Smardale is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Waitby, in the Eden district, in Cumbria, England. In 1891 the parish had a population of 36. Geography and history The village of Smardale lies in hilly agricultural la ...

and

Waitby Waitby is a small village and civil parish in the Eden district of Cumbria, England. The parish contains two small villages, Waitby and Smardale, plus the small hamlets of Riddlesay, Stripes and Leases, all of which are in the farmed and enclos ...

. The station opened to passenger traffic on 8 August 1861, and closed on 1 December 1952.

Description and history

At the time of its opening in 1861 the only habitation in the village of Smardale was Smardale Hall. The station consisted of a single platform on the south side of the line, and stone built station buildings as well as two goods sidings.Smardale
''www.disused-stations.org.uk'' A signal box was added in the 1890s. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

from 20 September 1915 the station closed being used as a halt but unstaffed. It reopened in 1919. The signal box was removed in the 1920s, and the station closed in 1952. In 2002 the preservation society

Stainmore Railway Company Stainmore Railway Company is a volunteer-run, non-profit preservation company formed in 2000 with the aim of restoring Kirkby Stephen East railway station in Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria, England. In 1997 a company called Stainmore Properties Ltd. w ...

(at Kirkby Stephen East) recovered two wagons which had derailed near the station and been left undisturbed for half a century.Rail crash remains recovered after 49 years
20 March 2004 , Cumberland and Westmorland Herald , ''www.cwherald.com'' As of 2013 the Stationmaster's house was still extant and formed the basis of an expanded private residence.

References

Sources

* * *

Images

''www.geog.port.ac.uk''

The Cumbria Railways Association Photo Library, ''cra.photos.gb.net'' South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway Disused railway stations in Cumbria Former North Eastern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1861 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1915 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1919 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1952 1861 establishments in England {{NorthWestEngland-railstation-stub