St Thomas Cross Platform railway station

St Thomas Cross Platform
Location
Place	Cringlethwaite, Egremont, Cumbria
Area	Copeland
Coordinates	54°28′35″N 3°31′21″W / 54.4765°N 3.5224°W / 54.4765; -3.5224Coordinates: 54°28′35″N 3°31′21″W / 54.4765°N 3.5224°W / 54.4765; -3.5224
Grid reference	NY014100
Operations
Original company	LNWR & FR Joint Railway
Post-grouping	London Midland and Scottish Railway
Platforms	Unknown
History
15 January 1912[1]	opened for workmen's services
by 1933	Closed[2][3]
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
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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 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

St Thomas Cross Platform was a railway station used by workmen's trains on the Moor Row to Sellafield line on what is now the southeastern, Cringlethwaite, edge of Egremont, Cumbria, England.

History and location

The line on which the halt was built was one of the fruits of the rapid industrialisation of West Cumberland in the second half of the Nineteenth Century. Tracks were laid southwards from Whitehaven and Moor Row as far as Egremont by the Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway, opening to passengers on 1 July 1857. By the 1860s the company sought to extend southwards from Egremont to meet the coastal line at Sellafield, aiming for Millom, Barrow-in-Furness and beyond. The Furness opposed this, but the two companies came to an accommodation and built the Egremont to Sellafield extension as a joint line.

St Thomas Cross Platform was a Twentieth Century addition to the line.^[4] A service from Moor Row to Beckermet Mines, calling at Woodend, Egremont and St Thomas Cross was started on 15 January 1912, though it is possible that other workmen's services called before then, as Florence Mine was nearby.

The use of the term "Platform" usually signified that a station was an unstaffed halt. The halt must have been closed by 1933, when the structure was demolished.^[1] It was used by workers at the nearby Florence mine,^[2] which went on to be the last operating iron ore mine, as opposed to quarry, in Western Europe. It closed in 2008.

The halt does not appear on the relevant 1928 Railway Clearing House junction diagram or in Jowett.^[5]

The station is not marked on contemporary OS maps up to 6" to the Mile, but an unlabelled building with a footpath to the road is shown in the right place on the Cumberland 1:2,500 scale OS map linked below via Old OS Maps.

Afterlife

By 2013 the trackbed through the halt was clearly visible on satellite images, but the site itself appeared to be privately occupied.

See also

• Furness Railway
• Cleator and Workington Junction Railway
• Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway

References

Sources

• Butt, R. V. J. (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 1-8526-0508-1. OCLC 60251199. 
• 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 1-8526-0086-1. OCLC 22311137. 
• Robinson, Peter W. (February 1989). Peascod, Michael, ed. "Workmen's Trains to Beckermet Mines". Cumbrian Railways. Pinner: Cumbrian Railways Association. 4 (3). ISSN 1466-6812. 
• Suggitt, Gordon (2008). Lost Railways of Cumbria (Railway Series). Newbury: Countryside Books. ISBN 978-1-84674-107-4. 

Further reading

• Anderson, Paul (April 2002). Hawkins, Chris, ed. "Dog in the Manger? The Track of the Ironmasters". British Railways Illustrated. Clophill: Irwell Press Ltd. 11 (7). 
• Bradshaw (1986) [1922]. Bradshaw's July 1922 Railway Guide (reprint). Guild Publishing London. 
• British Railways Pre-Grouping Atlas And Gazetteer. Shepperton: Ian Allan Publishing. 1997 [1958]. ISBN 0-7110-0320-3. 
• Atterbury, Paul (2009). Along Lost Lines. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-2706-2. 
• 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. 
• 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. 
• Quayle, Howard (2007). Whitehaven: The Railways and Waggonways of a Unique Cumberland Port. Pinner: Cumbrian Railways Association. ISBN 978-0-9540232-5-6. 
• Smith, Paul; Turner, Keith (2012). Railway Atlas Then and Now. Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 978 0 7110 3695 6. 
• 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

• Possible representation of the platform on a 1925 OS map, via Old OS Maps
• The station not on the line with Engineer's Line References, via railwaycodes.org.uk
• Map of the line with photos, via RAILSCOT
• The station not on overlain OS maps surveyed from 1898, via National Library of Scotland
• The station not on a 1948 OS Map, via npe maps
• 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
• 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
• Haematite, via earthminerals