Whitrigg railway station

54°54′29″N 3°12′45″W / 54.908174°N 3.212369°W / 54.908174; -3.212369Grid referenceNY223577Platforms1Other informationStatusDisusedHistoryOriginal companySolway Junction RailwayPre-groupingCaledonian RailwayKey dates1 October 1870^[1]Opened1 September 1917closed1920opened1 September 1921^[2]Station closed to all traffic

v t e 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

Whitrigg was a railway station on the Bowness Moss which served Whitrigg, a hamlet 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 for freight on 13 September 1869.

History

Whitrigg station was opened by the Solway Junction Railway, then part of the Caledonian Railway. At first the station was a 'flag' station or request stop with passengers wishing to alight informing the guard at Abbey Junction or Bowness, depending on their direction of travel. The gateman likewise signalled if a train was to stop.^[3] From 1 January 1873 a crossing keeper had been appointed and the level crossing itself signalled.^[4] North of the station was a goods siding, worked by a frame which was controlled by train tablet for the section Bowness and Kirkbride Junction.^[5]

The passenger service was never very well patronised and reduced to being just one carriage at the front of an occasional goods train and in September 1917 this was suspended,^[6] but was reinstated in 1920.^[7] Passenger services were finally withdrawn in 1921 and the line south of Annan over the Solway Viaduct was closed completely.

The station had one platform with a simple wooden station building.^[8] The closure of the station was directly linked to the closure of the Solway viaduct.

Micro-history

The first up goods train used to call at Whitrigg to attach livestock wagons.^[9]

The site today

The station waiting room and platform have been demolished and a private dwelling has been built on the site.

Preceding station	Historical railways			Following station
Bowness		Caledonian Railway Solway Junction Railway		Abbey Junction

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.

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.
• Railways of the Solway Plain