Tebay railway station was situated on the
Lancaster and Carlisle Railway
The Lancaster and Carlisle Railway was a main line railway opened between those cities in 1846. With its Scottish counterpart, the Caledonian Railway, the Company launched the first continuous railway connection between the English railway networ ...
(L&CR) (part of the
West Coast Main Line
The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...
) between
Lancaster and
Penrith. It served the village of
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 ...
,
Cumbria
Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...
, England. The station opened in 1852, and closed on 1 July 1968.
History
Prior to arrival of the railways, the location had a population of six people. The station was built by the L&CR in 1851, which was absorbed by the
London and North Western Railway
The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom.
In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lo ...
(LNWR) in 1879. The station was rebuilt in 1861 jointly as the western terminus of 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 ...
(SD&LR) - itself absorbed by the
North Eastern Railway (NER) - to make its eastward journey to connect with the
Stockton & Darlington Railway
The Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) was a railway company that operated in north-east England from 1825 to 1863. The world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, its first line connected coal mining, collieries near Shildo ...
near
Bishop Auckland
Bishop Auckland () is a market town and civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, northern England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham.
Much of the town's early history surro ...
, and hence onwards to
Durham Durham most commonly refers to:
*Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham
*County Durham, an English county
*Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States
*Durham, North Carolina, a city in No ...
. From 1861 the
Ingleton Branch Line of the
Lancaster and Carlisle Railway
The Lancaster and Carlisle Railway was a main line railway opened between those cities in 1846. With its Scottish counterpart, the Caledonian Railway, the Company launched the first continuous railway connection between the English railway networ ...
connecting via the
Midland Railway
The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It am ...
to
Settle
Settle or SETTLE may refer to:
Places
* Settle, Kentucky, United States
* Settle, North Yorkshire, a town in England
** Settle Rural District, a historical administrative district
Music
* Settle (band), an indie rock band from Pennsylvania
* ''S ...
and
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
, entered the main line at the south end of the Lune Gorge.
The railway companies provided much employment for local people and this brought about the construction of housing to accommodate the increased population. Still central to the village today is the Railway Club, whilst two railway built pubs still also exist. The local Junction Hotel is now flats but once had dance halls.
A steam locomotive shed was located on the west side of the line just south of the station and provided
banking locomotive assistance for heavy trains on the steep 1 in 75 gradient to the nearby
Shap
Shap is a linear village and civil parish located among fells and isolated dales in Eden district, Cumbria, England, in the historic county of Westmorland. The parish had a population of 1,221 in 2001, increasing slightly to 1,264 at the 2011 ...
summit. The shed was closed in 1968, shortly before steam locomotives were entirely withdrawn from
British Railways
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...
main line scheduled services.
Accidents
On 15 February 2004, four men carrying out maintenance work on the line were struck and killed by a runaway wagon in the
Tebay rail accident. Three years later, the
Grayrigg rail crash
The Grayrigg derailment was a fatal railway accident that occurred at approximately 20:15 GMT on 23 February 2007, just to the south of Grayrigg, Cumbria, in the North West England region of the United Kingdom. The accident investigation conc ...
happened on 23 February 2007 between
Oxenholme
Oxenholme is a village in England just south of the town of Kendal, with which it has begun to merge. It is best known for Oxenholme Lake District railway station on the West Coast Main Line. Because Oxenholme does not have its own church it i ...
and Tebay.
Cessation as a junction
Britain's railways were nationalised on 1 January 1948. In the early 1950s
British Railways
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...
divided control of the former SD&LR between the North Eastern and London Midland regions, with Kirkby Stephen as the boundary. Local passenger trains were withdrawn between Kirkby Stephen and Tebay on 1 December 1952, although steam-hauled summer Saturday services from the north-east to Blackpool continued to use the route until the end of the 1961 holiday season.
[British Railways North Eastern Region Timetable, Summer 1961, table 50] Freight was diverted via Newcastle and Carlisle from July 1960, and the last train ran on 20 January 1962. The passenger service was withdrawn on the remaining section of the former SD&LUR between Bishop Auckland and Barnard Castle on 12 June 1962. Following publication of
Dr Beeching
Richard Beeching, Baron Beeching (21 April 1913 – 23 March 1985), commonly known as Dr Beeching, was a physicist and engineer who for a short but very notable time was chairman of British Railways. He became a household name in Britain in the ...
report, the line closed completely on 5 April 1965. Today the
A685 runs over much of the former SD&LR trackbed east towards
Kirkby Stephen
Kirkby Stephen () is a market town and civil parish in Cumbria, North West England. Historically part of Westmorland, it lies on the A685, surrounded by sparsely populated hill country, about from the nearest larger towns: Kendal and Penrith. ...
.
The Ingleton Branch Line had always suffered from low traffic, whilst its major industrial customers all ceased operation in the 1930s. After rail nationalisation in 1948, it was uneconomical to operate both the Ingleton Line and the parallel Settle–Carlisle Line, and so on 30 January 1954 the Ingleton line closed to passenger traffic. Goods traffic continued until 1 October 1964, and the route maintained as a possible relief route until April 1967, when the tracks were lifted.
Closure
The end of junction traffic at the station resulted in the adjoining Victorian railway-boom village reducing in size by 150 people. The closure of the former steam shed brought further reductions in population and hence passengers. After closure of the station in 1968 the station buildings and platforms were demolished in the early 1970s, prior to the electrification of the route.
No trace of the station now remains, although the down goods loop and several sidings are still in place for use by engineering trains for Shap.
References
Bibliography
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External links
Disused Stations: Tebay
{{Closed stations Cumbria
Disused railway stations in Cumbria
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1852
Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1968
Beeching closures in England
Former Lancaster and Carlisle Railway stations
1852 establishments in England
Tebay