Kirkby Stephen East railway station
Encyclopedia
Barnard Castle railway station
Barnard Castle railway station was situated on the South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway between Bishop Auckland and Kirkby Stephen East. The railway station served the town of Barnard Castle. The first station opened to passenger traffic on 9 July 1856, and was replaced with a new station on 1...
and Tebay
Tebay railway station
Tebay railway station was situated on the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway between Lancaster and Penrith. It served the village of Tebay, Cumbria, England. The station opened in 1852, and closed on 1 July 1968....
. It served the town of Kirkby Stephen
Kirkby Stephen
Kirkby Stephen is a civil parish and small market town in Cumbria, in North West England which historically, is part of Westmorland. The town is located on the A685, surrounded by sparsely populated hill country, and about from the two nearest larger towns, Kendal and Penrith...
in England. The station opened to passenger traffic on 8 August 1861, and closed on 22 January 1962.
The station had an extensive goods yard which is now occupied by a Caravan Park. Also on the site was a engine shed, carriage shed and turntable. The station had a number of various excursions passing through it during its heyday. Starting in 1932, the two expresses to Blackpool, one from Newcastle and the other from Darlington both stopped at KSE for about five minutes, before setting off towards Blackpool. The return trip also passed through later in the day. Also, the station paid service to the Durham Miners special between 1932 - 1936.
Following the closure of the station in 1962, it was converted into a Bobbin Mill. The Bobbin Factory closed in 1992. Until 1997, the station was uninhabited.
In 1997 a company called Stainmore Properties Ltd. was formed, with the intention to convert KSE into a heritage centre representing the early 1950s. In the year 2000, another company, Stainmore Railway Company
Stainmore Railway Company
Stainmore Railway Company is a volunteer run non-profit company aiming to restore Kirkby Stephen East railway station in Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria, England. The station was formerly on the South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway and the company aims to relay a short section of track to allow train...
was formed to help with the restoration of the site. Since then essential repairs have been made to the roof and station, a number of rooms have been restored and a short section of track had been laid. (Whilst writing this, the SRC were in the process of extending further.)
August 2011 marks the 150th anniversary of the railway, and to commemorate this a number of events have been planned. The aim is to have a passenger service up and running by this deadline.