Cockermouth, Keswick to Penrith Abandoned Railway

​Isolated mines, agriculture and industry span this area and for its people they truly lived traditional and a gentle way of life.

​A railway running out of this area was originally deemed unprofitable. The communities however were not for keeping quiet hence a letter from J.M. of Keswick: 

​(Printed as "Railway Accommodation in the Lake District". Carlisle Journal. 6 November 1857) 
VO: "Here we are buried - shut out from the world, as it were - 15 hours from a morning paper while other people know at an instant what happens at the other end of the kingdom" 

​However investors soon came to the idea of running a mineral train from the West of Cumberland to the Coke-ovens of South Durham –  and with the backing of the London and Northwestern Railway the company's Bill was unopposed, and its Act received its Royal Assent in August 1861.

​So the The first sod was cut here (Church Ln Great Crosthwaite in  Keswick) by the company chairman on the 21st May 1862.

​The construction of 31 1⁄2 miles of  railway between here in Cockermouth to the West Coast Main Line at Penrith was started and four years later on the 2nd January 1865 the Cockmouth Keswick & Penrith Railway was up and running.

Above: Photo of a railway bridge near Keswick.

​The journey at Cockermouth an ancient market town and civil parish in the Borough of Allerdale in the North West of Cumbria sum 8 miles from the coast taking it’s name from the local river that runs by it.

​It’s original station was a shared station with the Cockermouth and Workington Railway, whose station became the joint goods station officially opened on the 2 January 1865.

The line’s ghost travels east along the A66 into the Lake District to Embleton or previously known as Lambfoot.

​Above: Emberton station grounds now married up to the A66 had a timber yard and sawmill. All station buildings were demolished bar the station house that till stands in private hands closed before the line was axed on the 15th Sept 1958. (Thank you to the owner for your cooperation)

Bassenthwaite Lake 'formally Peel Wyke' stood by these trees today. Once it had a camping coaches positioned by the London Midland Region in 1954 to 1964. 

The Station building and one platform are still visible from the A66 through the trees. But the station fell into a state of disrepair and loosing it’s roof unlike the Station Master's house that remains on the side of the road but the east bound platform and goods yards are now buried by the carriageway.

Below: ​Bassenthwaite Lake. In 2019 a replica French-style steam locomotive with Wagons-Lits carriages used in the 2017 film of Murder on the Orient Express were installed on the site as part of a tourist development & Cafe.

​Braithwaite station placed by this farm was once host to six LMS caravans in 1934 and 1935 followed by eight caravans from 1936 to 1939. A camping coach was also positioned here by the London Midland Region from 1958 to 1964. (Braithwaite Farm, Braithwaite, Keswick CA12 5RY) The station building survives as a private residence.

​The single line continued off to a larger township called Keswick along the river Greta.

​Above: Keswick (Station Ave) - In 1862, the railway company decided to establish its office at Keswick station. The site was one of the larger one. It had an engine shed, a carriage shed capable of accommodating at least six carriages and a turntable. 
       
The station was designed by the railway engineer Thomas Bouch; construction was by contractor George Bolton & Son's.  The line from beyond Keswick to Cockermouth and Workington was closed on 18 April 1966 by the Beeching Cuts leaving a single line branch between Keswick and Penrith. 

Superimposed images of the 70's and 2022.

​Above: Keswick Railway Station 2022 with my son Henry showing how the station would of seemed in the 70's.

​The station survived for six years before closing on 6 March 1972. The main station building has been used as a hotel in recent years but most of the other structures have been demolished and the land used for car parking. 

The line continued East over the River Greta into a cutting on towards a tunnel via a brewery, mill, electric light works and forge into a tunnel. 

​Below: ​Keswick to Threlkeld trail tunnel & map. (Click to view larger)

The 80-metre long Victorian tunnel was filled in after the railway line was closed in the early 1970s. It stood hidden away until mid 2020 when 3,000 tonne of material was cleared away and opened up as part of a multi-million pound project to create a new pathway.

​From here the next station on the line was Threlkeld Station a route that winds in and out over the local river many times. Today the trackbed is now a Railway Trail. (Low Briery Caravan Park)

Three miles East of Keswick Threlkeld Station and it’s town (Station Rd) is nestled at the southern foot of Blencathra, one of the more prominent fells in the northern Lake District, and to the north of the River Glenderamackin.  

There was fair sized Norse settlement in the area during the era of Viking expansion between 790s-1066. There was also an important and busy quarry opened in 1870 to supply railway ballast to the Penrith-Keswick line. 

Threlkeld Quarry - ​Later, the stone was used by the Manchester Corporation Water Works for their Thirlmere scheme, for railway ballast for the Crewe-Carlisle line, for road stone, kerbing and for facing buildings with dressed stone until the granite quarry closed in 1982. 

The quarry is now Quarry and Mining Museum with an active 2ft heritage steam railway for the visitors. 

​Below image: On the way out of this village we come across Mosdale Viaduct (Waithwaite)- Building work on the viaduct began in 1862, and the first test train crossed it in 1864. Made of stone and has 12 arches - just over 420 feet long. It was built single-track but was extended to the north in 1900 to take two tracks.

Old rails left abandoned: ​In 1997 British Rail Property Board agreed to defer plans to demolish the viaduct, in the light of proposals for the line to be reopened

At this point of the line we have three more stations to go before we land a Penrith on the WCML. Our next stop – Troutbeck.

​Troutbeck (Troutbeck Inn A5901) station taking it’s name from the local stream helped to build up the local activities with a cattle pen a livestock auction mart. Being close to a good roadway it was assumed this stage would attract tourist to enjoy the beautiful area. 

In 1874 a down loop was laid with it’s platform and an enclosed timber waiting shed. This shelter was used on Sunday afternoons for Sunday school and collective acts of worship, and its furniture included a harmonium.

In 1893-94 the overbridge immediately west of the station was reconstructed to accommodate the additional railway track when the line to Threlkeld was doubled. Like other rural stations, Troutbeck was originally oil lit, but from 1903 it was lit by gas produced by a small generator in a ‘gas house’ at  sidings east of the up platform.

It helped to serve a brick and tile works and had a large water tank to feed the thirty locomotives ascending the lines. Today all as gone bar the station house, now a lodge cottage.

​​Above: Penruddock (Station Rd) was similar in design to Troutbeck however it’s platforms were staggard. It’s original siding became part of the passing loop in 1870 with a signal box being built in 1896.

Below: ​​ Penruddock Platform Remains

1882 a siding was installed trailing off the down line for the use of the Howard family of Greystoke Castle and their guests. Described as a  ‘horse and carriage landing’, prior to World War 1 horses were unloaded about half-a-dozen times a year for hunting, and the military used the facility for horses bound for a nearby summer camp.

​The Greystoke estate also provided timber for pit props which were exported via this siding in 1919 and during World War 2 it was used once again for loading timber. 

Below: ​A small viaduct found near ​​Penruddock

Now taken over by a new set of homes built on the land – however there maybe signs of it’s railway past lurking in the grasses like going out to Penrith you passed over a small but sweet viaduct. The last of the intermediate stations was Blencow.  

Now it’s history is in the shadow of a concrete plant once the Lime Works - and store yard this station  was noted in the 1904 Railway Clearing House Handbook shows that Blencow could handle the full range of goods, including furniture vans, carriages, portable engines, machines on wheels, livestock, horse boxes and prize cattle vans. Although coal is also handled, the Handbook does not indicate this for any station. The provision of a 2-ton capacity crane is also told.

As we leave Blencow the line ends at Red Hills junction just North of Penrith Railway Station now absorbed by the A66 once more.

The line was closed west of Keswick in April 1966. The Keswick to Penrith line followed suit in March 1972, though freight trains continued to run to Flusco and Blencow, at the eastern end of the line, until the following June.

​A Campaign to reinstate the line with a single track and stations was estimated in 2017 at £50m the same cost to build 2 miles of motorway.

Keswick Museum and Art Gallery ( Station Road, Keswick,
Cumbria, CA12 4NF) displays many items connected with the railway, including the barrow and spade used in the ceremony to cut the first sod for the railway on 21 May 1862.
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