Armathwaite railway station

Armathwaite railway station is a railway station which serves the village of Armathwaite in Cumbria, England. The station is owned by Network Rail and is operated by Northern who provide all passenger train services. It is now, since the closure of Cotehill (1952), Cumwhinton (1956) and Scotby (1942) stations, the final stop on the Settle-Carlisle Line before the terminus at Carlisle. It was opened in May 1876, closed in May 1970 when local passenger trains ceased on the route and reopened by British Rail in July 1986. By then, the original station building on the Carlisle-bound platform had been sold for private use so a passenger shelter was built at the northern end of that platform. A brick-built passenger waiting room exists on the Leeds-bound platform.

Armathwaite
The Citadel Express stopped at Armathwaite for photographs
Location
Place	Armathwaite
Local authority	Eden
Coordinates	54.809°N 2.772°W / 54.809; -2.772
Grid reference	NY504463
Operations
Station code	AWT
Managed by	Northern
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	F2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15	7,786
2015/16	5,950
2016/17	2,180
2017/18	7,100
2018/19	7,616
History
1 May 1876	Opened
5 May 1970	Closed
14 July 1986	Reopened
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Armathwaite from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

History

The station was designed by the Midland Railway company architect John Holloway Sanders.[1] The original station building, now a private house, is a medium sized style station built from local red sandstone.[2]

The station became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway during the Grouping of 1923. It then passed to the London Midland Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. Sectorisation was introduced by British Rail in the 1980s, and when the station was reopened, it was served by Regional Railways until the Privatisation of British Rail.

The line through the station is often used as a diversionary route for the West Coast Main Line.

Facilities

The platforms can be reached from the nearby road (southbound) or car park (northbound), but there is no step-free access to either one.[3] Timetable information posters and a telephone link are available to give train running information, but there are no ticket-buying facilities at the station (these must be bought in advance or on the train). Northern is planning to install PIS displays and a ticket machine here in the coming years as part of a wider programme of station improvements across its network.

Services

Northern Trains Route 7: Bentham & Settle to Carlisle Lines
Carlisle Armathwaite Heysham Port Lazonby and Kirkoswald Morecambe Langwathby Bare Lane Appleby Lancaster Kirkby Stephen Carnforth Garsdale Wennington Dent Bentham Ribblehead Clapham Horton-in-Ribblesdale Giggleswick Settle Long Preston Hellifield Gargrave Skipton Keighley for Keighley & Worth Valley Railway Bingley Shipley Leeds

Leeds-bound passenger waiting room

Eight northbound and seven southbound trains serve the station Mondays to Saturdays, with six trains each way calling on Sundays (including a summer "DalesRail" service to and from Blackpool North).[4]

Services to Carlisle were suspended from 9 February 2016 due to a landslip just north of the station at Eden Brows (near Low House level crossing), which destabilised the embankment on the eastern side of the railway where it passes through the Eden Gorge. An emergency timetable was in operation, with trains from Leeds terminating/starting here and a rail replacement bus link taking passengers forward to Carlisle.[5] This continued until the end of March 2017, when the £23 million project to repair the embankment and reinstate the track bed was completed by Network Rail.[6] Whilst the repairs were in progress, only the northbound platform and line was in use - the southbound platform and line reopened for passenger service as scheduled on 31 March 2017.

Armathwaite signal box

Armathwaite signal box built by the Midland Railway in 1899 and restored in 1992; also traditional telegraph post

The Armathwaite signal box was built by the Midland Railway and placed in service on 16 July 1899. It was equipped with a 16-lever tumbler frame. The box was decommissioned on 15 January 1983. During 1992 it was restored by the Friends of the Settle to Carlisle Line and furnished with original Midland Railway block instruments and painted in original colours. It can be visited on Sundays by prior arrangement.[7]

Notes

1. "Notes by the Way". Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald. British Newspaper Archive. 1 November 1884. Retrieved 12 July 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
2. "The Settle - Carlisle Railway". Settle-Carlisle Railway Development Company. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
3. Armathwaite Station facilities National Rail Enquiries; Retrieved 21 December 2016
4. Table 42 National Rail timetable, May 2019
5. "S&C rail services run to Armathwaite"Rail Magazine 28 June 2016; Retrieved 30 June 2016
6. "£23m landslip repair set to reopen Settle-Carlisle railway line in March 2017"Network Rail Media Centre; Retrieved 7 July 2016
7. Harvey, Mark (14 March 2013). "Armathwaite station signalbox". Friends of the Settle Carlisle Line. Retrieved 10 May 2019.

References

• Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 18. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199.
• Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687.

External links

• Train times and station information for Armathwaite railway station from National Rail
• Station on navigable O.S. map

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Lazonby and Kirkoswald		Northern Settle-Carlisle Line		Carlisle
	Historical railways
Lazonby and Kirkoswald		Midland Railway Settle-Carlisle Railway		Cotehill