Coniston Railway
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The Coniston Railway was a Cumbria , England railway that connected Coniston to Broughton-in-Furness for over 100 years. The line was opened in 1859 to transport copper ore and shale and was later expanded to bring tourists to the Lake District . The route was closed in 1962.
history
Before the railroad, ore and slate had to be transported on the Coniston Water by horse-drawn carts or boats . In 1849 a plan to connect Coniston with the Furness Railway , which had reached Broughton-in-Furness in 1848, was first considered.
The Coniston Railway Act did not come into force until August 10, 1857. The Coniston Railway was designed as an independent company, but it was closely linked to the Furness Railway. The Duke of Devonshire is the Chairman and James Ramsden the General Manager of both companies . After the first company to build the line went bankrupt, the Furness Railway took over to complete the line.
The Coniston Railway line opened on June 18, 1859, although Coniston station was not completed until the end of the year. In 1860 the line was extended to the mines at Coniston. On July 7, 1862, the Coniston Railway went on in the Furness Railway.
Steamships
The railway company was aware of the opportunities the railway line offered for tourism from the start. So the SY Gondola was built and bought in Liverpool, transported in parts by train to Lake Coniston and reassembled there. After being launched on November 30, 1858, the SY Gondola began its service as a passenger ship in June 1859. The gondola was decommissioned in 1936, sold and converted into a houseboat before it sank in the winter of 1963/64. The wreck was recovered and restored in 1978. The gondola has been sailing on Coniston Water again since 1980.
The success that the gondola had caused the railway company to put a second boat into service. The SY Lady of the Lake was used on Coniston Water from 1907 and was decommissioned with the beginning of the Second World War . In 1950 the Lady of the Lake was scrapped.
Shutdown
The route of the Coniston Railway was closed to passenger traffic on October 6, 1958. Until April 30, 1962, freight traffic was still operated on the route. The rails and most of the other railway facilities were removed after the line was closed. The Coniston train station was demolished in 1968. Torver, Woodland and Broughton train stations are now private residences.
swell
- Michael Andrews; Geoff Holme, The Coniston Railway , Cumbrian Railways Association, 2005. ISBN 0-9540232-3-4
- David Joy, Cumbrian Coast Railways , Clapham: Dalesman, 1968. ISBN 0-85206-000-9
- Melville, J .; Hobbs, JL, “ Early Railway History in Furness, ” Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, Kendal: Titus Wilson & Son, XIII, 1951.
- Robert Western, The Coniston Railway , Usk: Oakwood Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-85361-667-2