Corkickle Railway Station serves the Whitehaven

Whitehaven

Whitehaven is a small town and port on the coast of Cumbria, England, which lies equidistant between the county's two largest settlements, Carlisle and Barrow-in-Furness, and is served by the Cumbrian Coast Line and the A595 road...

 suburb of Corkickle

Corkickle

Corkickle may refer to:* Corkickle, Cumbria, a suburb of Whitehaven* Corkickle railway station...

 in Cumbria

Cumbria

Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The railway station

Train station

A train station, also called a railroad station or railway station and often shortened to just station,"Station" is commonly understood to mean "train station" unless otherwise qualified. This is evident from dictionary entries e.g...

 is a request stop on the scenic Cumbrian Coast Line

Cumbrian Coast Line

The Cumbrian Coast Line is a rail route in North West England, running from Carlisle to Barrow-in-Furness via Workington and Whitehaven. The line forms part of Network Rail route NW 4033, which continues via Ulverston and Grange-over-Sands to Carnforth, where it connects with the West Coast Main...

 68 kilometres (42.3 mi) south east of Carlisle

Carlisle railway station

Carlisle railway station, also known as Carlisle Citadel station, is a railway station whichserves the Cumbrian City of Carlisle, England, and is a major station on the West Coast Main Line, lying south of Glasgow Central, and north of London Euston...

. The station opened in 1855 and is at the southern end of the 1219 metres (3,999.3 ft) tunnel from Whitehaven railway station

Whitehaven railway station

Whitehaven Railway Station serves the town of Whitehaven in Cumbria, England. The railway station is a stop on the scenic Cumbrian Coast Line south west of Carlisle....

. At times it was known as 'Whitehaven Corkickle' station.

It is operated by Northern Rail

Northern Rail

Northern Rail is a British train operating company that has operated local passenger services in Northern England since 2004. Northern Rail's owner, Serco-Abellio, is a consortium formed of Abellio and Serco, an international operator of public transport systems...

 who provide all passenger train services.

Service

Monday to Saturdays there is an irregular service (hourly for parts of the day, less frequent at other times) northbound to Carlisle and southbound to Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness railway station

Barrow-in-Furness railway station is a railway station that serves the town of Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria, England. It is located on the Furness Line to Lancaster and the Cumbrian Coast Line to Workington and Carlisle...

. There are no trains after 19.00 on Mondays-Saturdays and no Sunday service.

The Corkickle Brake

In 1881 the Corkickle Brake, an inclined wagonway

Wagonway

Wagonways consisted of the horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons, which preceded steam powered railways. The terms "plateway", "tramway" and in someplaces, "dramway" are also found.- Early developments :...

 525 yards (480.1 m) in length and with gradients of between 1 in 5.2 and 1 in 6.6 was built from the Furness Railway

Furness Railway

The Furness Railway was a railway company operating in the Furness area of Lancashire in North West England.-History:The company was established on May 23, 1844 when the Furness Railway Act was passed by Parliament...

 main line, a short distance to the south of Corkickle station, to the Earl of Lonsdale

Earl of Lonsdale

Earl of Lonsdale is a title that has been created twice in British history, firstly in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1784 , and then in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1807, both times for members of the Lowther family....

's Croft Pit.. The 'brake' closed in 1931 due to the worsening financial situation of the colliery's owners, Lonsdale's Whitehaven Colliery Co. In May 1955, the incline was re-opened, this time to serve the factory of Marchon Products - a subsidiary of Albright and Wilson

Albright and Wilson

Albright and Wilson was founded in 1856 as a United Kingdom manufacturer of potassium chlorate and white phosphorus for the match industry. For much of its first 100 years of existence, phosphorus-derived chemicals formed the majority of its products....

 - at Kells. It was used mainly to haul rail tanker wagons containing sulphuric acid from the main line - by now in the ownership of British Railways - to the Marchon factory. The Corkickle Brake closed for good on 31 October 1986 and the task of transporting the acid and other chemicals was taken over by road tankers.

External links

• http://www.cumbria-railways.co.uk/corkickle_brake_whitehaven.html History and pictures of the Corkickle Brake.