Beckermet Mines railway station

Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway
Legend
Cleator and Workington Junction Railway Cumbrian Coast Line to Carlisle Cockermouth and Workington Railway Marron Junction Workington Central Workington Main Bridgefoot Harrington Parton Halt Branthwaite Distington Gilgarran Branch Distington Works Ullock Parton Lamplugh Rowrah Whitehaven Summit Winder Whitehaven Tunnel Yeathouse Corkickle Eskett Eskett Junction Mirehouse Junction Frizington Moor Row Cleator Moor West Cleator Moor East St Bees Cleator Moor(first) Woodend St Bees Golf Halt Gillfoot Egremont Nethertown St Thomas Cross Platform Beckermet Mines Braystones Beckermet Sellafield Cumbrian Coast Line to Barrow-in-Furness

Beckermet Mines railway station was situated at Pit No.1 of the mine of the same name. It was used by workmen's trains which travelled along a branch which curved eastwards off the Moor Row to Sellafield line, primarily to handle the iron ore lifted at the site.^[3]

The mine was opened in 1903 in open country west of the hamlet of Haile, Cumbria, England. The site's surroundings remained rural in 2013.

History and location

The line off which the branch was built was one of the fruits of the rapid industrialisation of West Cumberland in the second half of the Nineteenth Century. Tracks were laid southwards from Whitehaven and Moor Row as far as Egremont by the Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway, opening to passengers on 1 July 1857. By the 1860s the company sought to extend southwards from Egremont to meet the coastal line at Sellafield, aiming for Millom, Barrow-in-Furness and beyond. The Furness opposed this, but the two companies came to an accommodation and built the Egremont to Sellafield extension as a joint line.

When winnable ore was found north east of Beckermet some years later the railway was well placed to serve it, with a workmen's service being a natural consequence in the days long before mass car ownership and road public transport. Beckermet Mine and its workmen's halt were Twentieth Century additions to the line.^[4] Services began in 1912 with three trains each way daily from Moor Row, calling at Woodend, Egremont and St Thomas Cross Platform.^[5]

The station was very likely to have been an unstaffed halt, no platform is identified as such on contemporary OS maps. The mine's products continued to be taken away by rail until the 1970s.

Rundown and closure

An online source^[6] gives the mine's closure date as 1973, whilst three books give it as 1980.^[7][8][9] Both sides could be right, as Florence, Ullcoats and Beckermet mines were joined underground in their later years. The mine's product was the last traffic on any of the lines built by the Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway. The "main line" off which the branch was built closed when Beckermet Mine closed, all the way back to Corkickle. It lay unused until 1993, when it was lifted.^[9]

The exact date the workmen's service ended is not yet confirmed.

Afterlife

By 2013 the site of the mine was occupied by the Beckermet Industrial Estate with road access only.

See also

• Furness Railway
• Cleator and Workington Junction Railway
• Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway
• British quarrying and mining narrow gauge railways

References

Sources

• Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0508-1. OCLC 60251199. 
• Croughton, Godfrey; Kidner, Roger W.; Young, Alan (1982). Private and Untimetabled Railway Stations, Halts and Stopping Places X 43. Headington, Oxford: The Oakwood Press. ISBN 0 85361 281 1. 
• Jowett, Alan (March 1989). Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0086-1. OCLC 22311137. 
• Marshall, John (1981). Forgotten Railways: North West England. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0 7153 8003 6. 
• Quayle, Howard (2007). Whitehaven: The Railways and Waggonways of a Unique Cumberland Port. Pinner: Cumbrian Railways Association. ISBN 978-0-9540232-5-6. 
• Robinson, Peter W. (February 1989). Peascod, Michael, ed. "Workmen's Trains to Beckermet Mines". Cumbrian Railways (Pinner: Cumbrian Railways Association) 4 (3). ISSN 1466-6812. 
• Suggitt, Gordon (2008). Lost Railways of Cumbria (Railway Series). Newbury: Countryside Books. ISBN 978-1-84674-107-4. 

Further reading

• Anderson, Paul (April 2002). Hawkins, Chris, ed. "Dog in the Manger? The Track of the Ironmasters". British Railways Illustrated (Clophill: Irwell Press Ltd) 11 (7). 
• Bradshaw (1986) [1922]. Bradshaw's July 1922 Railway Guide (reprint). Guild Publishing London. 
• British Railways Pre-Grouping Atlas And Gazetteer. Shepperton: Ian Allan Publishing. 1997 [1958]. ISBN 0-7110-0320-3. 
• Atterbury, Paul (2009). Along Lost Lines. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-2706-2. 
• Bairstow, Martin (1995). Railways In The Lake District. Martin Bairstow. ISBN 1-871944-11-2. 
• Bowtell, Harold D. (1989). Rails through Lakeland: An Illustrated Journey of the Workington-Cockermouth-Keswick-Penrith Railway 1847-1972. Wyre, Lancashire: Silverling Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-947971-26-2. 
• McGowan Gradon, W. (2004) [1952]. The Track of the Ironmasters: A History of the Cleator and Workington Junction Railway. Grange-over-Sands: Cumbrian Railways Association. ISBN 0-9540232-2-6. 
• Smith, Paul; Turner, Keith (2012). Railway Atlas Then and Now. Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 978 0 7110 3695 6. 
• Joy, David (1983). Lake Counties (Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain). Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 094653702X. 
• Western, Robert (2001). The Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway OL113. Usk: Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-564-0. 

External links

• The mine and implied station on overlain OS maps surveyed from 1937, via National Library of Scotland
• The mine and implied station on overlain OS maps surveyed from 1937, via National Library of Scotland
• The mine and implied station on on a 1948 OS Map, via npe maps
• Map of the line with photos, via RAILSCOT
• The line off which the branch diverges with Engineer's Line References, via railwaycodes.org.uk
• The railways of Cumbria, via Cumbrian Railways Association
• Photos of Cumbrian railways, via Cumbrian Railways Association
• The railways of Cumbria, via Railways_of_Cumbria
• Cumbrian Industrial History, via Cumbria Industrial History Society
• Furness Railtour using many West Cumberland lines 5 September 1954, via sixbellsjunction
• A video tour-de-force of the region's closed lines, via cumbriafilmarchive
• Haematite, via earthminerals
• Beckermet Mines, via mindat
• The mine, via Durham Mining Museum
• Beckermet mine from the air between the wars, via Britain from above
• The Business Park, via The Parish Council
• Two shots of a Class 25 diesel shunting at the mine, via flickr