Bowness railway station

Bowness railway station
The former Bowness railway station pictured in 1961
Location	Bowness-on-Solway, Allerdale England
Coordinates	54°56′57″N 3°13′47″W / 54.949214°N 3.229683°W / 54.949214; -3.229683Coordinates: 54°56′57″N 3°13′47″W / 54.949214°N 3.229683°W / 54.949214; -3.229683
Grid reference	NY213623
Platforms	2
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	Solway Junction Railway
Pre-grouping	Caledonian Railway
Key dates
8 August 1870[1]	Opened
September 1917	closed
1920	reopened
1 September 1921[2][3]	Closed to all traffic

v t Solway Junction Railway
Legend
Caledonian Railway Main Line Kirtlebridge Annan Shawhill Annan Glasgow, Dumfries and Carlisle Railway Solway Viaduct over Solway Firth  Scotland England Bowness Whitrigg Carlisle and Silloth Bay Railway Kirkbride Junction Sleightholme Abbey Junction Carlisle and Silloth Bay Railway Bromfield Maryport and Carlisle Railway Brayton (M&CR) Maryport and Carlisle Railway

Bowness was a station which served Bowness-on-Solway, a village in Cumbria on the English side of the Solway Firth. The station opened on 8 August 1870 by the Caledonian Railway on a line constructed from the Caledonian Railway Main Line at Kirtlebridge across the Glasgow South Western Line, then forming the Solway Junction Railway over the Solway Viaduct to Brayton. The line opened in 1869 and freight had run since 13 September 1869.

History[]

Bowness was opened by the Solway Junction Railway, then part of the Caledonian Railway The passenger service was never well patronised and reduced to being just one carriage at the front of an occasional goods train and in September 1917 this was suspended,^[4] but was reinstated in 1920.^[5] Passenger services were finally withdrawn in 1921 and the line south of Annan over the Solway Viaduct was closed completely.

The station was only built as an afterthought following a petition from local people.^[6] It had two platforms, a signal box, cattle pens and an overbridge at the northern end. Old photographs show a carriage body on one platform as a shelter, etc.^[7] In 1910 a watertank was located next to the overbridge and the platform beside the signal box had no buildings, not even a passenger shelter.^[8] In 1915 the signalbox was open from 4 am to 8:30 pm.

Disused, the station became the property of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923 until sold together with the viaduct.^[9]

The Solway railway viaduct[]

Beyond Bowness station the railway ran along an embankment and then crossed the estuary of the Solway upon an iron girder viaduct, one mile 176 yards in length.^[10] The local people's frustration at the delay in reopening the Solway Viaduct after it was damaged in 1881 is recorded in the newspapers of the day.^[8]

The site today[]

The station house is now a private dwelling.^[5]

References[]

Notes

Sources

• Edgar, Stuart & Sinton, John M. (1990). The Solway Junction Railway. Oxford: Oakwood Press. ISBN 978-0853613954.
• Mullay, A. J. (1990). Rails across the border: the story of Anglo-Scottish Railways. Wellingborough: Patrick Stephens Limited. ISBN 1-85260-186-8.
• Quick, Michael (2009) [2001]. Railway passenger stations in Great Britain: a chronology (4th ed.). Oxford: Railway & Canal Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-901461-57-5. OCLC 612226077.
• Robinson, Peter W. (2002). Cumbria's Lost Railways. Catrine: Stenlake Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84033-205-6.

Further reading

• 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 978-1-85260-086-0. OCLC 22311137.
• Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687.
• RAILSCOT on Solway Junction Railway
• Railways of the Solway Plain