Corkickle railway station

Corkickle Railway Station serves the Whitehaven suburb of Corkickle in Cumbria, England. The railway station is a request stop on the scenic Cumbrian Coast Line 68 kilometres (42 mi) south east of Carlisle. The station opened in 1855^[1] and is at the southern end of the 1,219 metres (3,999 ft) tunnel from Whitehaven railway station. At times it was known as 'Whitehaven Corkickle' station.^[2][3]

It is operated by Northern Rail who provide all passenger train services.

Service

Monday to Saturdays there is an irregular service (hourly for parts of the day, less frequent at other times) northbound to Carlisle and southbound to Barrow-in-Furness. There are no trains after 19.00 on Mondays-Saturdays and no Sunday service.^[4]

The Corkickle Brake

In 1881 the Corkickle Brake, an inclined wagonway 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.^[5]. The 'brake' closed in 1931 due to the worsening financial situation of the colliery's owners, Lonsdale's Whitehaven Colliery Co^[5]. 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 and the task of transporting the acid and other chemicals was taken over by road tankers^[6].

Notes

1. ^ Quick (2009)
2. ^ Quick (2009)
3. ^ British Railways (1957/8)
4. ^ GB Rail Timetable (2009)
5. ^ ^{a b} Quayle (2006), p.60
6. ^ Quayle (2006), p.61-65

References

• British Railways London Midland Region Passenger Timetable, 16 September 1957 to 8 June 1958.
• GB Rail Timetable Winter Edition 13 December 2009 - 22 May 2010.
• Hyde, M. and Pevsner, N The Buildings of England: Cumbria. Yale University Press 2010. ISBN 978-0-300-12663-1
• Joy, D. Cumbrian Coast Railways. Dalesman Publishing 1968.
• Joy, D. A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain, Volume 14: The Lake Counties. David and Charles 1983. ISBN 0-946537-02-X
• Quayle, H. Whitehaven - The Railways and Waggonways of a Unique Cumberland Port. Cumbrian Railways Association 2006. ISBN 978-0-9540232-5-6
• Quick, M.E. Railway Passenger Stations in Great Britain - A Chronology. Railway and Canal Historical Society 2009. ISBN 978-0-901461-575

External links

• [1] History and pictures of the Corkickle Brake.