Barras railway station

Barras
Barras railway station in 1962
Location
Place	Barras
Area	Eden
Operations
Original company	South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway
Pre-grouping	North Eastern Railway
Post-grouping	London and North Eastern Railway
Platforms	2
History
26 March 1861	Opened
22 January 1962	Closed
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Barras railway station was situated on the South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway between Barnard Castle and Kirkby Stephen East.

History

The station was situated at 1,100 ft altitude and was the highest station in England until Dent station on the nearby Settle and Carlisle Line was opened in 1877. The Stainmore Summit at 1,370 ft lay four miles to the east and the substantial Belah Viaduct was one mile to the southwest.

The station served the villages of Barras, Brough and North Stainmore. It was opened to passenger traffic on 26 March 1861, and closed by British Railways North Eastern Region on 22 January 1962.^[1] Freight facilities had been withdrawn on 1 December 1952 and from that date it had been operated as an unstaffed halt for passengers only.

The main station buildings and a small goods yard and siding were constructed on the north side of the line, serving eastbound trains. There was a waiting shelter for passengers which was located on the westbound platform.

In July 2007, the up platform waiting room was removed brick by brick by Stainmore Railway Company volunteers.^[2] Materials were subsequently stored at Kirkby Stephen East station, and in 2015 began a new lease of life as part of the new water tower which was built at the railway's headquarters.^[3] This project also re-used stone from Mousegill Viaduct, which was in close proximity to Barras station on the South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway before being blown up as part of an Army training exercise in 1966.^[4]

Services

Barras station site in 2016 with the westbound waiting shelter in the foreground and station master's house beyond the lifted track bed

The British Railways North Eastern Region published passenger timetable for October 1950 showed that four trains called at the station in each direction on weekdays en route from Darlington to Kirkby Stephen.

Local freight trains also served the Barras goods yard and through freight trains from the northeast via Stainmore and Tebay to Barrow-in-Furness also passed through the station.

Heavy snow falls frequently interrupted operations on the Stainmore line. In February 1955 an eastbound steam locomotive and its goods train became stuck for four days in deep snow just north of the station. Its recovery was recorded in an official film Snowdrift at Bleath Gill.

References

• Walton, Peter (1992). The Stainmore & Eden Valley Railways. Oxford Publishing Co. ISBN 0-86093-306-7. 
• Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory Of Railway Stations. Patrick Stephens Limited. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. 
• British Railways Pre-Grouping Atlas And Gazetteer. Ian Allan Publishing. 1997 [1958]. ISBN 0-7110-0320-3. 

External links

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/b/barras/index.shtml Disused Stations

Coordinates: 54°30′11″N 2°14′33″W / 54.50308°N 2.24241°W / 54.50308; -2.24241