Cockermouth and Workington Railway

v t e Cockermouth and Workington Railway
Legend
Cumbrian Coast line Workington Cleator and Workington Junction Railway Workington Central Workington Bridge River Derwent (two crossings) Camerton River Derwent (three crossings) Marron Junction Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway River Marron Broughton Cross Brigham Maryport and Carlisle Railway Cockermouth later Cockermouth goods station Cockermouth (CK&P) Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway

The Cockermouth & Workington Railway was an English railway company (established by act of Parliament^[which?] in 1845) which built and operated a railway between the Cumberland towns of Workington and Cockermouth. The railway opened for service in 1847, and ran from the Whitehaven Junction Railway station at Workington to a station at Cockermouth near the bridge over the Derwent. A single-tracked line of eight and a half miles length, its revenue came largely from the transport of coal from the pits of the lower Derwent valley to the port at Workington for shipment by sea. The Marron extension of the Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway and the Derwent Branch of the Maryport and Carlisle Railway were both constructed to link with the C&WR and together give an alternative route for the northward movement of haematite ore from the Cumberland ore-field. The completion of the Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway made the C&WR part of a continuous through route between South Durham and the Cumberland orefield. These developments both improved the potential profitability of the C&WR, and made control of it important to bigger companies wishing to maximise the iron-ore traffic over their lines: the C&WR was absorbed by the London and North Western Railway in 1866.

Goods traffic on the line ceased in 1964; passenger traffic in 1966. From just east of Bridgefoot to just short of the Papcastle roundabout, the modern A66 trunk road follows the alignment of the C&WR.