Silloth railway station

Silloth
Location
Place	Silloth
Area	Allerdale
Coordinates	54°52′03″N 3°23′21″W / 54.8676°N 3.3893°W / 54.8676; -3.3893Coordinates: 54°52′03″N 3°23′21″W / 54.8676°N 3.3893°W / 54.8676; -3.3893
Grid reference	NY109534
Operations
Original company	Carlisle & Silloth Bay Railway & Dock Company
Pre-grouping	North British Railway
Post-grouping	London and North Eastern Railway
Platforms	1[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]
History
4 September 1856	Opened
7 September 1964[12]	Closed
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

Carlisle and Silloth Bay Railway
Locale Cumbria Dates of operation 1854 – 1964 Predecessor Carlisle & Silloth Bay Railway Successor NBR Track gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Legend
Silloth Battery Extension Silloth Convalescent Home Silloth Docks and Pier Silloth Causewayhead Blackdyke Halt Abbey Town Solway Junction Railway southbound Abbey Junction Sleightholme Solway Junction Railway northbound Kirkbride New Dykes Brow Port Carlisle Glasson Drumburgh Burgh-by-Sands Kirkandrews Waverley Line northbound Port Carlisle Junction Carlisle Canal West Coast Main Line northbound Carlisle Citadel West Coast Main Line southbound

Silloth was the terminus of the Carlisle and Silloth Bay Railway, a branch railway from Carlisle, England.^[13] The town, dock and station at Silloth were built on a greenfield site after the Carlisle & Silloth Bay Railway & Dock Act (1855) was passed.^[14] The railway provision grew with the dock and its later additions.^[15]

The station was opened in 1856 and closed by the Beeching axe on 7 September 1964, when it had been estimated in 1962 that the line was losing £23,500 a year and rising, staff costs had been pared to the bone and an imminent track bill of £32,500 was to be faced.^[16]

Services

Sample timetables along the branch show typical routine patterns.^[17] Unfortunately they are undated:

• the first does not show Abbey Junction, suggesting it is after 1 September 1921, nor does it mention the North British, so it may be 1923-1932, when the branch to Port Carlisle closed
• the second matches Bradshaw in 1922^[18]
• the third is from British Railways days.

The Winter 1962/3 timetable^[19] shows eight trains each way, Monday to Saturday, with a Saturday extra, as well as three trains on Sundays. The table strikes the eye as being simpler than earlier timetables with:

• all trains 2nd Class only
• a much better service to Blackdyke Halt
• no through trains beyond Carlisle
• Drumburgh had closed in 1955.

A 1903 Railway Clearing House Junction Diagram showing (right) railways in the vicinity of Silloth

The line was one of the first in the country to be dieselised, with one train a day remaining steam-hauled.

The branch was atypical in that from the 1880s successive owners had fostered a vigorous trade in "Specials", the cornerstone of which was Carlisle to Silloth and back for a shilling. This was backed by encouraging outings to Silloth by a wide range of customers such as Sunday schools, Temperance clubs and racegoers.^[20] Many specials were both long and well-filled;^[21] the longest ever was not a trippers' train, but a celebration train for the reopening of Carr's flour mill in 1905.^[5]

Freight traffic, which had done well in wartime,^[22] notably because it was on the north west coast, was following the pattern of the rest of the country - in decline. There was insufficient shunting to justify keeping the small locoshed open after 6 July 1953^[23][24] and erstwhile staple business such as flour traffic from Carr's Mill fell from £7000 to £100 per month, the business being lost to road competition.^[25]

All tracks to and in Silloth had been removed by 1968.^[26]

The future

The Allerdale council in northern England passed its final approval on a plan to demolish the remaining structure of the station on 8 December 2006. The development firm James Morgan Ltd. was awarded a contract to build new single-family housing on the property. Stuart Hinchliffe, director of the development firm also stated "We will be reinstating as much of the old railway platform as we can, to maintain Silloth’s Victorian history."^[27]

See also

• List of closed railway stations in Britain

References

Sources

• Anderson, David (November 2004). Kennedy, Rex, ed. "The Port Carlisle and Silloth Branch Lines". Steam Days. Bournemouth: Redgauntlet Publications (183). ISSN 0269-0020. 
• Barbey, M.F. (February 1955). Cooke, B.W.C., ed. "From Carlisle to Silloth". The Railway Magazine. London: Tothill Press Limited. 101 (646). 
• Barker, Oswald J. (August 2010). Smith, Martin, ed. "Branch line to Silloth". Railway Bylines. Radstock: Irwell Press Limited. 15 (9). 
• Bradshaw (1986) [1922]. Bradshaw's July 1922 Railway Guide (reprint). Guild Publishing London. 
• Cumbria, Confederation of Women's Institutes (2000) [1994]. Cumbria Within Living Memory. Newbury: Countryside Books. ISBN 1 85306 301 0. 
• Earnshaw, Alan (July 1990a). Jenkinson, David, ed. "The Silloth Branch - Part 1". Back Track. Penryn: Atlantic Transport Publishers. 4 (4). 
• Earnshaw, Alan (September 1990b). Jenkinson, David, ed. "The Silloth Branch - Part 2". Back Track. Penryn: Atlantic Transport Publishers. 4 (5). 
• Gammell, C. J. (May 1994). Kennedy, Rex, ed. "Just a few lines... Cumbria". Steam Days. Bournemouth: Redgauntlet Publications (57). ISSN 0269-0020. 
• Griffiths, Roger; Smith, Paul (2000). The Directory of British Engine Sheds and Principal Locomotive Servicing Points: 2 North Midlands, Northern England and Scotland. OPC Railprint. ISBN 0-86093-548-5. OCLC 59558605. 
• Hammond, John M. (August 2015). Peascod, Michael, ed. "The Beeching Plan and the Closure of the Carlisle-Silloth Branch". Cumbrian Railways. Pinner: Cumbrian Railways Association. 11 (11). ISSN 1466-6812. 
• 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. 
• Joy, David (1973). Railways of the Lake Counties. Clapham, via Lancaster: Dalesman Publishing. ISBN 0 85206 200 1. 
• Marsh, John; Garbutt, John (1999). Cumbrian Railways. Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0750920432. 
• Puxley, Chris (2009). The Port of Silloth 1858 - 2009: A Pictorial History Through 150 Years of a Solway Port. Portishead, Bristol: Bernard McCall. ISBN 978-1-902953-42-7. 
• Quick, Michael (2009) [2001]. Railway passenger stations in Great Britain: a chronology (4th ed.). Oxford: Railway and Canal Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-901461-57-5. OCLC 612226077. 
• Robinson, Peter W. (2002). Cumbria's Lost Railways. Stenlake Publishing. ISBN 1 84033 205 0. 
• Robinson, Peter W. (2004) [1986]. Rail Centres No. 6 - Carlisle. Nottingham: Booklaw Publications. ISBN 1-901945-16-2. 
• Robinson, Peter W. (1985). Railways of Cumbria. Clapham, via Lancaster: Dalesman Books. ISBN 0 85206 815 8. 
• Thomlinson, G. (May 1983). Peascod, Michael, ed. "Rails on the Solway". Cumbrian Railways. Pinner: Cumbrian Railways Association. 2 (14). ISSN 1466-6812. 

Further reading

• Bazley, Basil M. (August 1953). Cooke, B.W.C., ed. "Carlisle in 1905". The Railway Magazine. London: Tothill Press Limited. 99 (628). 
• Edgar, Stuart; Sinton, John H. (1990). The Solway Junction Railway. Catrine, Ayrshire: The Oakwood Press. ISBN 978-0853613954. Locomotion Papers LP176. 
• Mullay, Alexander J. (2006). Rails Across the Border. Tempus. ISBN 075243666X. 
• Robinson, Peter W. (August 1995). Peascod, Michael, ed. "Maryport & Carlisle 150". Cumbrian Railways. Pinner: Cumbrian Railways Association. 5 (12). ISSN 1466-6812. 
• Suggitt, Gordon (2008). Lost Railways of Cumbria (Railway Series). Newbury: Countryside Books. ISBN 978-1-84674-107-4. 
• Walton, John K. (1979). "Railways and Resort Development in Victorian England: The Case of Silloth". Northern History. Leeds: University of Leeds, School of History. 15 (1). ISSN 0078-172X. 
• Webb, David R. (September 1964). Cooke, B.W.C., ed. "Between the Solway and Sellafield: Part One". The Railway Magazine. London: Tothill Press Limited. 110 (761). 
• White, Stephen (1984). Solway Steam: The Story of the Silloth and Port Carlisle Railways, 1854-1964. Carlisle: Carel Press Limited. ISBN 0950909610. 

External links

• The station on a navigable Edwardian OS map, via National Library of Scotland
• The station on the branch, with mileages, via Railway Codes
• The line with period photographs, via Holme St Cuthbert History Group
• The line and station, via Cumbrian Railways Association
• Images of the battery and railways in Silloth, via BBC and others
• 1929 aerial view of he station, via Britain from above (sign-in needed to zoom)
• The station via Rail Map Online