Cleator Moor railway station

Cleator Moor had three passenger stations:

• The original 1857 Cleator Moor station which became a goods station when it was replaced in 1866
• Its 1866 replacement which went on to be known as Cleator Moor East, and
• The rival 1879 station which went on to be known as Cleator Moor West.

This article is about the original Cleator Moor station.

Cleator Moor
Location
Place	Cleator Moor
Area	Copeland
Coordinates
Grid reference	NY016152
Operations
Original company	Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway
Pre-grouping	LNWR & FR Joint Railway
Post-grouping	London, Midland and Scottish Railway
Platforms	2
History
1 July 1857	Opened
1866	Closed to passengers, new station 600 yards west
1960s	Closed completely
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
Closed railway stations in Britain A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z
UK Railways portal

1904 railway junctions around Cleator Moor, Parton, Rowrah & Whitehaven

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

The original Cleator Moor railway station was built by the Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway. It served the rapidly urbanising town of Cleator Moor, Cumbria, England.

History

The line was one of the fruits of the rapid industrialisation of West Cumberland in the second half of the Nineteenth Century. The station opened to passengers on 1 July 1857 on the line being developed from Moor Row to Rowrah.

Subsidence led the company to build a deviation line which curved round the west side of the station and the growing settlement, in a similar manner to what it was forced to do at Eskett a few miles to the east. They built a passenger station on the deviation line which would go on to be called Cleator Moor East.

When the deviation line - known locally as the Bowthorn Line - and station opened in 1866 the original station was closed to passengers and became "Cleator Moor Goods Depot", with its line known locally as the Crossfield Loop. It remained open for goods traffic until the 1960s.

Afterlife

Satellite images suggest the station site is Public Open Space. By 2008 the trackbed had been transformed into part of National Cycle Route 71.

Preceding station	Disused railways			Following station
Frizington Line and station closed		Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway		Moor Row Line and station closed

See also

• Furness Railway
• Cleator and Workington Junction Railway

External links

• Map of the line with photos, via RAILSCOT
• The station as a goods station on overlain OS maps surveyed from 1898, via National Library of Scotland
• The original station on an OS map surveyed in 1863, via National Library of Scotland
• The three closed stations on a 1948 OS Map, via npe maps
• The station, via Rail Map Online
• The station and line as a goods station, via railwaycodes
• Cleator Moor East station and deviation line, via railwaycodes
• 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
• The line's and station's Engineer's Line References, via railwaycodes.org.uk
• 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
• 1882 RCH Diagram showing the station, see page 173 of the pdf, via google
• Haematite, via earthminerals
• Mining in Cleator Moor, via Haig Pit