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Coniston
railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...
was the northern terminus of the Coniston branch line in the village of Coniston,
Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a Historic counties of England, historic county, Ceremonial County, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significa ...
, England (now in
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. ...
).


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 (german: Schweizerstil, no, Sveitserstil) is an architectural style of Late Historicism, originally inspired by rural chalets in Switzerland and the Alpine (mountainous) regions of Central Europe. The style refers to trad ...
. 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 The motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is the place where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained when not being used. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine she ...
and a
turntable A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...
south east of the station building. The shed was re-roofed by British Railways 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 in Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. In 202 ...
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 a civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 11,524, increasing at the 2011 census to 11,678. Historically in Lancashire, it lies a few mi ...
(then commonly written as "Ulverstone") remaining the local
market town A market town is a Human settlement, 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 marketplace, market; this distinguished it from a village or ...
, as it had since the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
. 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 twentyseven 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 resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre rivers, and ...
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 railway companies in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland from the 1930s. The coaches were old passenger vehicles no longer suitable for use in trains, which were converted t ...
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 motor coach, usually open-topped, common in Britain during the early part of the 20th century. It has "be ...
s and sea-going
paddle steamer A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses wer ...
s across
Morecambe Bay Morecambe Bay is a large estuary in northwest 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 large ...
, suggestive of
Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tu ...
s. The paddle steamer part of the tours was not revived after the First World War and Ribble buses 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 (Furness) 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 i ...
s in the form of two steam vessels to ply the length of
Coniston Water Coniston Water in the English county of Cumbria is the third-largest lake in the Lake District by volume (after Windermere and Ullswater), and the fifth-largest by area. It is five miles long by half a mile wide (8 km by 800 m), ha ...
. The first was the Steam Yacht Gondola, launched in 1859, joined by
Lady of the Lake The Lady of the Lake (french: Dame du Lac, Demoiselle du Lac, cy, Arglwyddes y Llyn, kw, Arloedhes an Lynn, br, Itron al Lenn, it, Dama del Lago) is a name or a title used by several either fairy or fairy-like but human enchantresses in the ...
in 1908. Lady of the Lake was scrapped in 1950 but Gondola has made 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 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 shows just one daily goods train and no mineral trains, though goods traffic was supplemented before 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 fig ...
by the routine running of
mixed trains A mixed train or mixed consist is a train that contains both passenger and freight cars or wagons. Although common in the early days of railways, by the 20th century they were largely confined to branch lines with little traffic. Typically, ser ...
. 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 heritage railway in Cumbria, England. The line runs from Ravenglass to Dalegarth Station near Boot in the valley of Eskdale, in the Lake District. At Ravenglass the line ends at Rav ...
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