Coniston Railway Station, Cumbria
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Coniston
railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
was the northern terminus of the Coniston branch line in the village of Coniston,
Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...
, England (now in
Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...
).


History

Authorised by Parliament in August 1857 the line to Coniston was open less than two years later in June 1859. The station building was designed by the
Lancaster Lancaster may refer to: Lands and titles *The County Palatine of Lancaster, a synonym for Lancashire *Duchy of Lancaster, one of only two British royal duchies *Duke of Lancaster *Earl of Lancaster *House of Lancaster, a British royal dynasty ...
architect E. G. Paley in
Swiss chalet style Swiss chalet style (, ) is an architectural style of Historicism (art), Late Historicism, originally inspired by rural chalets in Switzerland and the Alps, Alpine (mountainous) regions of Central Europe. The style refers to traditional building d ...
. The station was enlarged between 1888 and 1892 at a cost of over £4,000 (equivalent to £ in ). The train shed was doubled in length and the goods shed was enlarged. A third platform was added in 1896 at a cost of £750 (equivalent to £ in ). There was a single track
engine shed A motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine sheds" or just "sheds". Facilit ...
and a
turntable A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding phys ...
south east of the station building. The shed was re-roofed by
British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commis ...
then closed when the station closed to passengers in 1958, but remained standing until the line and station were demolished in the 1960s. British Railways closed the station and the branch to passengers in 1958 and completely in 1962. The line's last fare-paying passengers are believed to be participants of the SLS/MLS Furness railtour of 27 August 1961.


Services

Railways in the area underwent a complex evolution with the development of
Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town and civil parish (as just "Barrow") in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the county of Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borou ...
in the second half of the nineteenth century. When Coniston Lake (as Coniston station was originally called) opened in 1858 Barrow was at its early stages of emergence as an industrial town, with
Ulverston Ulverston is a market town and civil parish in Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it lies a few miles south of the Lake District Lake District National Park, National Park and j ...
(then commonly written as "Ulverstone") remaining the local
market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...
, as it had since the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
. The May 1865 Down (towards Coniston Lake) timetable shows three arrivals at Coniston Lake - morning midday and evening - from Monday to Saturday (the days are implied, not stated) with two on Sundays; all these trains travelled direct from Ulverstone, with connections shuttling between Barrow and Ulverstone along what was described as "The Barrow Branch." By 1867 the pattern of provision had evolved so that most services shuttled along the branch to the to main line at , mostly making connections. The Barrow loop line opened in 1882, making travel easier between what by then was called plain "Coniston" and the growing centre of employment at Barrow, though the core pattern remained whereby branch trains connected at Foxfield. Physical, social and railway geography nevertheless made a poor mix. Ulverston market day was and remains on Thursdays. Ulverston is approximately twelve miles from Coniston by road, but over twenty-seven miles by train via Barrow. Someone travelling on the market day extra from Coniston took 96 minutes to get to Ulverston, if all went well. This was an improvement in 1882, but a millstone when road travel improved in the following century. In Summer 1907 eight trains left Coniston for Foxfield Monday to Saturday, with three on Sundays. The Winter service was weaker - in 1910 five trains left Coniston (still listed as "Coniston Lake" in Bradshaw) for Foxfield, with two on Sundays. By the summer of 1922 nine trains left Coniston (no longer Coniston Lake, even in Bradshaw) daily, with four on Sundays. This weekday pattern continued until closure, though Sunday services were more variable, especially during the Second World War. Steam railcars were used for many years, but from 1950 if not earlier the core motive power was a push-pull set powered by a late- LMS 2-6-2T designed by Henry George Ivatt as in the photograph above. Great effort and money was expended on tourist services to Lakeside, but Coniston received much less attention in railway days and remains a relative backwater today. Few Special Trains travelled the branch and few Summer only trains reached Coniston from far away places. The exception which proved the rule was the Summer Tuesdays and Thursdays only service from
Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...
which survived until 1958, the line's last summer. In the 1930s the train also had a Summer Saturdays only variant which started at and returned to . This service was the only timetabled passenger train in BR days to travel direct between Dalton Junction and Park South, avoiding the long loop through Barrow. Two initiatives were introduced to encourage people to use the line, as opposed to special trains -
Camping coach Camping coaches were holiday accommodation offered by many Rail transport, railway companies in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland from the 1930s. The Coach (rail), coaches were old passenger vehicles no longer suitable for use in tr ...
es and lake steamers. From 1934 a camping coach was placed at and three were positioned a short distance north of Coniston station on a siding off the branch to the Copperhouse. Campers were required to buy four adult returns from their home station. The Torver coach was not replaced after the Second World War, but those at Coniston were, 2 coaches were here in 1954 and three from 1955 until the end of the 1957 season. The steamer service was aimed at a socially select ridership, as underlined by its prices and literature. It was marketed as part of a suite of circular tours taking in trains, lake steamers,
charabanc A charabanc or "char-à-banc" (often pronounced "sharra-bang" in colloquial British English) is a type of horse-drawn vehicle or early coach (vehicle), motor coach, usually open-topped, common in UK, Britain during the early part of the 20th ...
s and sea-going
paddle steamer A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine driving paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, whereby the first uses were wh ...
s across
Morecambe Bay Morecambe Bay is an estuary in north-west England, just to the south of the Lake District National Park. It is the largest expanse of intertidal mudflats and sand in the United Kingdom, covering a total area of . In 1974, the second largest ga ...
, suggestive of Grand Tours. The paddle steamer part of the tours was not revived after the First World War and
Ribble buses Ribble Motor Services was a large regional bus operator in North West England based in Preston. History Ribble Motor Services commenced operations in May 1919 following the acquisition of a depot consisting of four double-decker and one sin ...
replaced charabancs, but otherwise the core provision resumed after 1918 and continued until the outbreak of the Second World War, never to resume. Whilst this enterprise involved little investment in the railway it involved considerable investment by the Coniston and
Furness Railway The Furness Railway (FR) was a railway company operating in the Furness area of Lancashire in North West England. History Formation In the early 1840s, the owners of iron ore mines in the Furness district of Lancashire became interested in a ...
s in the form of two steam vessels to ply the length of
Coniston Water Coniston Water is a lake in the Lake District in North West England. It is the third largest by volume, after Windermere and Ullswater, and the fifth-largest by area. The lake has a length of , a maximum width of , and a maximum depth of . Its ou ...
. The first was the steam yacht ''Gondola'', launched in 1859, joined by ''Lady of the Lake'' in 1908. ''Lady of the Lake'' was scrapped in 1950 but ''Gondola'' has had a remarkable revival. She was still plying the lake in 2016. One aim in building the line was to carry copper ore from the
mines Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging *Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun Mi ...
above Coniston; £20,000 of the £45,000 risk capital raised by the technically independent Coniston Railway came from the copper mine owners and lessees. In the event the mine had passed its zenith when the line opened. What few records survive show that the copper tonnage carried was much less than the slate tonnage and both were on an altogether smaller scale than iron ore traffic in the area outside the line. The line's 1877
working timetable A working timetable (WTT) - (Fr. ''horaire de service (HDS)'' or ''service annuel (SA)''; N. America ''Employee timetable'') - The data defining all planned train and rolling-stock movements which will take place on the relevant infrastructure duri ...
shows just one daily goods train and no mineral trains, though goods traffic was supplemented before the
First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
by the routine running of mixed trains. One goods train per day became three per week in LMS days, remaining so until the line closed to all traffic in 1962.


Demolition and afterlife

The branch was lifted between April and November 1963, with most reusable materials being salvaged. Coniston station's footbridge was donated to the
Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway The Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway is a minimum-gauge railway, minimum-gauge heritage railway in Cumbria, England. The line runs from Ravenglass to Dalegarth for Boot railway station, Dalegarth Station near Boot, Cumbria, Boot in the valley o ...
but the building was abandoned and left to decay until December 1968 when it was demolished by North Lonsdale Rural District Council's Roads Department. The site was later used for light industry and housing.


See also

* List of non-ecclesiastical works by E. G. Paley


References


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* *


External links


The station on a navigable 1946 OS map
at ''npe maps''
The station on a navigable Edwardian 6inch OS map
at ''National Library of Scotland''
The station on a navigable 1888 25inch OS map
at ''National Library of Scotland''
The station and line
at ''Rail Map Online''
The station and line
at ''Railway Codes''
The station between the wars
at ''Chasewater Stuff''
The station in 1950
at ''Chasewater Stuff''
The station in the 1950s
at ''flickr''
The station in the 1950s
at ''flickr''
The station in the 1950s
at ''flickr''
The station in the 1950s
at ''Heritage Photo Archive''
The station in the 1950s
at ''Kayak9''
The station in the 1950s
at ''Bygone Transport''
The station in 1961
at ''flickr''
The station in the 1960s
at ''My Railway Station'' {{Closed stations Cumbria E. G. Paley buildings Former Coniston Railway stations Disused railway stations in Cumbria Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1859 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1962 1859 establishments in England