Allhallows Colliery railway station

Allhallows Colliery
Location
Place	West of Mealsgate
Area	Allerdale
Coordinates	54°46′13″N 3°14′33″W / 54.7702°N 3.2424°WCoordinates: 54°46′13″N 3°14′33″W / 54.7702°N 3.2424°W
Grid reference	NY201424
Operations
Pre-grouping	Maryport and Carlisle Railway
Post-grouping	London Midland and Scottish Railway
Platforms	1 (probably)
History
by May 1922[1]	Station opened for untimetabled colliers' trains
Probably 1928	Station closed[2]
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Maryport and Carlisle Railway
Legend
West Coast Main Line to Glasgow and Edinburgh Carlisle West Coast Main Line to London Cummersdale Dalston Curthwaite Crofton private station Wigton Brookfield Aikbank Junction Leegate Solway Junction Rly Brayton High Blaithwaite Mealsgate Allhallows Colliery Baggrow Aspatria Arkleby (closed 1852) Bullgill Dearham Bridge Maryport Cumbrian Coast Line Dearham Linefoot Linefoot Junction Cleator and Workington Junction Railway Dovenby Lodge Papcastle Cockermouth and Workington Railway Brigham Cockermouth and Workington Railway

Allhallows Colliery railway station was in the former county of Cumberland, now Cumbria, England. It was a stop on the Bolton Loop (sometimes referred to as the "Mealsgate Loop") of the Maryport and Carlisle Railway.^[3][4]

The station - almost certainly an unstaffed halt - was provided for miners at the colliery of the same name. No timetabled service ever called, nor is it certain what form the platform took, many such up and down the country were primitive in the extreme; in some cases users had to climb down from covered wagons or ancient coaches onto the trackside.

History

The line was opened by the Maryport and Carlisle Railway primarily to access collieries in the Bolton Coalfield and to head off rival attempts to access this potential traffic by the North British Railway-backed Silloth Company.^[5][6] The line and station became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSR) at the Grouping of 1923.

Public stations on the line past the colliery outlived the pit, which closed in 1928.

In 1922 and "probably until 1928"^[2] an unadvertised workmen's service was provided to Allhallows Colliery, between Baggrow and Mealsgate. Whether this was an additional stop for existing trains or additional trains has yet to be confirmed, as have the service's start and end dates. The stopping place at the colliery never achieved advertised public passenger service status.^[1]

Apart from the colliers' service, by July 1922 the public passenger service past the colliery (under the heading "Aspatria and Wigton") had evolved to a simple six trains a day - the "Baggra Bus" - plying between Aspatria and Mealsgate, all calling at Baggrow, with no variations by day. Wigton appears in the table, but no trains served it by this route.^[7]

Passenger trains along the remaining part of the loop were withdrawn in 1930, with no residual parcels service. Baggrow was closed completely, but Mealsgate remained open for goods; this petered out in 1952,^[8] after which the tracks were lifted east of Baggrow. A section west of Baggrow survived for several more years as a long siding.

Afterlife

By 2013 all colliery buildings had long been demolished, but the footprint of the colliery site was plain to see on satellite images. Remarkably, the original Allhallows Colliery signalbox has been restored.^[9]

See also

• Maryport & Carlisle Railway

References

1. Croughton, Kidner & Young 1982, p. 38.
2. Robinson 2002, p. 29.
3. Jowett 1989, Map 36.
4. The Bolton Loop, via Cumbrian Railways Association
5. Suggitt 2008, pp. 91-2.
6. Thomlinson 1943, p. 174.
7. Bradshaw 1985, p. 511.
8. Robinson 1995, p. 184.
9. Allhallows signalbox, via Cumbrian Railways Association

Sources

• Bradshaw (1986) [1922]. Bradshaw's July 1922 Railway Guide (reprint). Guild Publishing London.
• Colman, C. V. (January 1982). Peascod, Michael, ed. "Passenger Services on the Bolton and Derwent Branches". Cumbrian Railways. Pinner: Cumbrian Railways Association. 2 (9). ISSN 1466-6812.
• 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. (2002). Cumbria's Lost Railways. Stenlake Publishing. ISBN 1 84033 205 0.
• 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.
• Thomlinson, George F. (May 1943). "The Port Carlisle Railway". The Railway Magazine. London: IPC Transport Press Ltd. 89 (545).

Further reading

• 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.
• Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 0-9068-9999-0. OCLC 228266687.

External links

• The station on an Edwardian OS map, via National Library of Scotland
• The station on the branch, with mileages, via Railway Codes
• Baggrow on a navigable 1946 O. S. map, via npe Maps
• The station, via Rail Map Online