Yeathouse railway station

Yeathouse railway station was a later addition to the Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway. It served the communities of Yeathouse and Eskett, near Frizington, Cumbria, England.^[3][4]

Yeathouse
General information
Location	Yeathouse, Frizington, Copeland England
Coordinates	54.5374°N 3.4797°W / 54.5374; -3.4797
Grid reference	NY043167
Platforms	2
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway
Pre-grouping	LNWR & FR Joint Railway
Post-grouping	London, Midland and Scottish Railway
Key dates
11 June 1872	Opened, replacing Eskett
13 April 1931	Closed
11 March 1940	Reopened for workmen's trains[1]
8 April 1940	Closed[2]

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

v t e Whitehaven, Cleator & 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 Distington Works Gilgarran Branch Ullock Parton Lamplugh Rowrah Whitehaven Summit Winder Whitehaven Tunnel Yeathouse Corkickle Eskett Mirehouse Junction Eskett Junction Moor Row Frizington St Bees Cleator Moor West Cleator Moor East St Bees Golf Halt Cleator Moor (first) Woodend Gillfoot Egremont Nethertown St Thomas Cross Platform Beckermet Mines Braystones Beckermet Sellafield Cumbrian Coast line to Barrow-in-Furness

History

The line was one of the fruits of the rapid industrialisation of West Cumberland in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Eskett station opened to passengers with the line from Moor Row to Rowrah on 12 February 1864. The section of line through the station suffered subsidence problems so severe that the company built a deviation line to an alignment curving sharply and steeply to the west, including a new passenger station at Yeathouse. When the deviation and new station opened on 11 June 1872 the old alignment was severed north of Eskett station, which was converted to a goods depot. It remained as such until final closure in 1931.

The deviation made the line even more difficult to work for the rest of its existence.^[5]

Services

Whilst some Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway (WCER) mineral, goods and passenger traffic to and from Rowrah passed north along the line to Marron Junction, the greater part arrived and left southwards towards Moor Row and therefore passed through Yeathouse. Mineral traffic was also generated locally from the quarries and mines such as Yeathouse Quarry workings on a branch heading southeast immediately north of Yeathouse station.

In 1922 seven all stations passenger trains called at Yeathouse in each direction, with an extra on Whitehaven Market Day. Four were Rowrah to Whitehaven services, the other three plied a long, circuitous route between Workington Main and Whitehaven via Camerton, Marron Junction, Ullock, Rowrah and Moor Row.^[6]

Yeathouse station's owning Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont company was taken over by the LNWR and Furness Railway in 1879 as a Joint Line, whereafter passenger traffic through the station was usually worked by the LNWR.^[7]

Goods traffic typically consisted of a two daily turns Up and Down.

Mineral traffic was the dominant flow, though this was subject to considerable fluctuation with trade cycles. Stations and signalling along the line south of Rowrah were changed during the Joint regime to conform to Furness Railway standards.^[8]

Rundown and closure

The station closed on 13 April 1931 when normal passenger traffic ended along the line, though workmen's trains were reinstated in March 1940, only to be withdrawn a month later.^[1]

The line southwards from Rowrah through Yeathouse lead a charmed life, continuing with a limestone flow from a quarry at Rowrah until 1978, after which all traffic ceased and the tracks were lifted.^[9]

Afterlife

By 2008 Yeathouse station had been demolished. The trackbed had been transformed into part of National Cycle Route 71.^[10]

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

See also

• Cumbria portal

• Furness Railway
• Cleator and Workington Junction Railway

References

1. Croughton, Kidner & Young 1982, p. 143.
2. Butt 1995, p. 257.
3. Smith & Turner 2012, Map 26.
4. Jowett 1989, Map 36.
5. Suggitt 2008, p. 58.
6. Bradshaw 1985, p. 510.
7. McGowan Gradon 2004, p. 12.
8. W McGowan Gradon's 1942 Furness Railway study, via cumberlandarchives.co.uk
9. Suggitt 2008, p. 59.
10. Suggitt 2008, p. 60.

Sources

• Bradshaw, George (1985) [July 1922]. Bradshaw's General Railway and Steam Navigation guide for Great Britain and Ireland: A reprint of the July 1922 issue. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-8708-5. OCLC 12500436.
• Butt, R. V. J. (October 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 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199. OL 11956311M.
• 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 978-1-85260-086-0. OCLC 22311137.
• 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.
• Suggitt, Gordon (2008). Lost Railways of Cumbria (Railway Series). Newbury: Countryside Books. ISBN 978-1-84674-107-4.

Further reading

• British Railways Pre-Grouping Atlas And Gazetteer. Shepperton: Ian Allan Publishing. 1997 [1958]. ISBN 0-7110-0320-3.
• Anderson, Paul (April 2002). Hawkins, Chris (ed.). "Dog in the Manger? The Track of the Ironmasters". British Railways Illustrated. 11 (7). Clophill: Irwell Press Ltd.
• Atterbury, Paul (2009). Along Lost Lines. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-2706-7.
• 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.
• Joy, David (1983). Lake Counties (Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain). Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 094653702X.
• Marshall, John (1981). Forgotten Railways: North West England. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-8003-6.
• Western, Robert (2001). The Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway OL113. Usk: Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-564-0.

External links

• Map of the line with photos, via RAILSCOT
• The station on overlain OS maps surveyed from 1898, via National Library of Scotland
• The closed station on a 1948 OS Map, via npe maps
• The station, via Rail Map Online
• 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
• Yeathouse history, via fivenine