The Harrington and Lowca Light Railway (commonly known as the Lowca Light Railway or LLR) was a short railway on the coast of Cumberland, which is now part of Cumbria, England.
The line was originally an industrial railway, but by the early twentieth century it was carrying passengers in association with the Cleator and Workington Junction Railway (CWJR). This joint venture ended in 1929, and from that year onwards, the line reverted to industrial use. It closed in 1973, having outlived almost all its larger neighbours.
History The earliest railway near the village of Harrington was a Wagonway at Harrington Harbour, which was probably constructed when improvements were made to the harbour in 1760. In 1844, the Whitehaven Junction Railway was being planned, and Henry Curwen of Workington required the company to build a bridge at Rose Hill to carry "Mr Curwen's waggonway" over the new railway. The wagonway was later leased by James Bain and Partners, owners of the ironworks in Harrington and became known locally and on at least one Railway Clearing House map as "Bains's Tramway".Photos of bridge and remains over coast line, via Harrington History
Bain's Tramway is shown on an 1864 OS map running from Harrington Harbour south along "Rose Hill" past Harrington Parks and a disused chemical works then swinging inland to "John Pit (Coal)" and its neighbour "Hodgson Pit (Coal)".Early tramway precursor, via National Library of ScotlandJohn and Hodgson Pits, via Haig Pit Museum On the map the middle of the word "Reservoirs" would be the site of the future Rosehill Junction and the disused Chemical Works the approximate site of the future station.
In 1879, the Cleator and Workington Junction Railway opened and built a branch from Harrington Junction which connected with Bain's Tramway at the future Rosehill Junction. Harrington Junction is shown on the 1882 Railway Clearing House map as "Junction with Railways 3 & 4". The map shows the tramway continuing to John Pit and makes no mention of Micklam or Lowca. It also shows Bain's No 4 Pit on the Gilgarran Branch.
A branch to Mossbay in Workington was opened on 19 December 1885, diverging southwest from the Derwent Branch west of Harrington Junction. This gave a second access to Moss Bay Ironworks.Moss Bay Branch diverges from the Derwent Branch, via National Library of Scotland In 1893, an extension of the Mossbay Branch was built between the coastal main line and the sea southwards to Harrington Harbour.Mineral Railway to Harrington Harbour, via National Library of Scotland
The 1900 OS map shows that the final route from Rose Hill Junction had been built. The original tramway running south-southwest to John and Hodgson Pits had been abandoned from a short distance south of Foxpit House,Line towards Micklam deviated from original waggonway, via National Library of Scotland with the new line of route continuing nearer the shoreline to "Micklam Pit", "Harrington Colliery" and then swinging east to "Bain's Siding".Line through Micklam and Lowca to Bain's Siding, via National Library of Scotland
Expansion at Lowca In 1909 Derwent Ironworks, Moss Bay Hematite Iron and Steel Company, Harrington Ironworks, Harrington Harbour, Harrington Colliery and the mineral line from Harrington Harbour up to Rosehill Junction then on to Micklam and Lowca all became part of the newly formed Workington Iron & Steel Company Ltd (WISC), just as Harrington No. 10 colliery at Lowca was about to come on stream. Geography and commerce then explain the route by which industrial products were moved for the next sixty four years. Two geographical features set the context: cliffs and sea. Lowca and Micklam are on top of cliffs overlooking the sea, with only a narrow sea level strip below them, already fully occupied by the coast line. Traffic between those places and the new company's works, docks and elsewhere in the UK had to climb or descend either very steeply (e.g. the original Rosehill tramway route up from Harrington Harbour) or go circuitously inland. Harrington Harbour was on its last legs. Although it had led the way in the eighteenth century it would have been hopelessly incapable of handling the volume of traffic required at the start of the twentieth; furthermore, it had no room for expansion. WISC had a commercial incentive to operate the lines which had evolved between their core Workington sites and Lowca in that they could avoid costs and risks associated with overdependence on the LNWR and its crowded coastal route.
The 1914 RCH Junction Diagram shown right suggests WISC might have swapped dependence on the LNWR for dependence on the CWJR, as the lines from Moss Bay and Derwent works through Harrington Junction to Rosehill Junction all belonged to the CWJR. Although these lines were the CWJR's, the WISC and its eventual successor the United Steel Company - provided and ran mineral trains, an arrangement which continued until closure in 1973.A display of industrial locos on the LLR, via Banklands The company then had two routes from Workington to Lowca - via the coast and via Harrington Junction, without overdependence on either.
The routes Neither route between Workington and Lowca was simple. The coastal route, used for example by a coal train from Solway Colliery to the washeries at Lowca, involved travelling south to the sidings at Parton, reversing up the 1 in 53 Gilgarran Branch to Bain's Siding then zig-zagging forwards up the valley side to the washery.
A train taking the inland route from Moss Bay Ironworks to Lowca would start southwards towards Harrington Harbour, squeezed between the LNWR line and the sea. The train would join the harbour line and stop; the locomotive would run round and head north, immediately swinging northeast to cross the coastal route by a bowstring girder bridge. The route then described a 180 degree arc so that by Harrington Junction it was heading south again. An easy run past the Glebe Sand Siding High Harrington Sandpit, via Harrington History to Rosehill Junction meant that the original Mr Curwen's waggonway 1 in 15 climb from Harrington Harbour had been replaced by a much gentler loop. There was a sting in the tail, as from Rose Hill Junction the line climbed southwards to Copperas Hill for at 1 in 17 easing to 1 in 26 for a further followed by at a relaxed 1 in 49. Most of the rest of the line along the clifftops was at gradients in double figures.
As older collieries became uneconomic or were worked out, new mines were opened further afield and deeper underground (or undersea, as at Lowca.) The critical ones in this context were Harrington No 9 Pit and Harrington No 10 Pit, both on the clifftop at Lowca. "Harrington" in this context was now doubly confusing as the pits were not in Harrington and the Harrington Colliery Company had ceased trading as an independent entity. The pits came into operation in 1911, along with new coke ovens nearby.Coking plant and bi-products, via Cumbria Industries This surge in activity and the assured future of Micklam's 1901 fireclay mine and associated brickworks (the output was used extensively to line blast furnaces) led to increased traffic using the mineral line along the clifftops and increased the need for labour in this remote and inaccessible spot.
Passenger services Sources differ whether the coking works was owned by the Workington Iron and Steel Company (WISC), with technical support from Koppers, whose technology was used, or whether an independent Koppers Coke Ovens Company ran the plant,Koppers Coke Ovens at Lowca, via Cumbrian Railways Association but in 1910 one or both asked the CWJR to provide workmen's services between Workington and Lowca. The railway company consulted the Board of Trade (BoT) and made some signalling alterations at Harrington Junction as a result of a BoT inspection report on their Harrington Branch (i.e. Harrington Junction to Rosehill Junction) issued by Colonel Druitt on 22 March 1912. They then introduced a workmen's service between Rail map showing Moss Bay Cart Siding, via Harrington History and Lowca on 15 April 1912. The service used WISC locomotives and rolling stock and was later transferred to run from .
Details of the workmen's service are sketchy. A letter from WISC's parliamentary agent to the BoT on 2 December 1912 stated "..the line is being used [...] for the purpose of conveying workmen between Harrington and the works of the Promoters..." A photograph taken of the first public train on 2 June 1913 shows it at the workmen's platform at Lowca, the public platform yet not being ready. Standard works, notably Quick and Butt, make no mention of services at Lowca before 2 June 1913, nor at or . They also give as opening on 2 June 1913. This suggests that the workmen's service called at Moss Bay Cart Siding/Workington Central, and Lowca Workmen's Platform. The mention of "...conveying workmen between Harrington and the works..." and entries in Croughton and Quick give tentative support to the Rose Hill Platform (aka Junction) call. Ex-employees writing later state "Miners' trains went up the private railway from Rosehill Box, where Pat McGuire, the "singing signalman" operated." Some later authors appear to conflate Rosehill Platform (aka Rose Hill Platform) and Archer St Halt.
Given the success of the workmen's service the WISC, in co-operation with the CWJR, decided to introduce a publicly advertised passenger service over the same route, which would effectively "upgrade" the workmen's service. Then, as now, the procedure to introduce such a service was costly, slow and fraught with pitfalls. However, the Light Railways Act 1896 had made it possible to open a "light railway" with many fewer hurdles to cross. Such lines were restricted to 25 mph and 8 tons axleweight, thereby presenting fewer hazards to all concerned. The process of seeking a light railway order did not involve an act of Parliament with attendant costs and delays. Step one was to publish a local press "notice", to which interested parties could respond, this was done on 22 May 1912, setting out the case for a "Harrington and Lowca Light Railway." This led to a public meeting in Workington on 20 July 1912 at which the LNWR objected to the service on the grounds that it would be a competing line. They subsequently accepted that it would not and withdrew their opposition.
At this point bureaucracy took over, with the Board of Trade's Railway Department going through the necessary processes with the WISC and CWJR. Colonel Druitt reported on the Rosehill Junction to Lowca line on 8 May 1913 taking what must have been one of the last steps in the approval process, because the sanctioning the Harrington and Lowca Light Railway was signed eight days later on 16 May 1913 and services began a fortnight after that on 2 June 1913, with the inaugural train posing with mineworkers of both sexes, akin to the Pit Brow Lasses of the Wigan coalfield.The first public passenger train at Lowca, via Cumbrian Railways AssociationFemale colliery workers, via Wigan World