Coastal views, some of the last regular locomotive-hauled passenger trains in Britain, historic stations, signal boxes, and semaphores define the Cumbrian Coast, a route I'd love to see represented. Barrow-Workington is a distance of about 53 miles. At the south end is Barrow, with its modern station, and an attractive tile mosaic that welcomes travelers. Barrow LMD is also located here, just north of the station. Heading north out of Barrow, the line passes stations at Park South Junction, Askam, Kirkby-in- Furness, and Foxfield, while following the shore of the River Duddon, which it crosses near Foxfield. From here, it's on to Green Road, Millom, Silecroft, Bootle, and then the scenic crossing of the River Esk at Arnside, 552 yards long. Just a short distance away is Ravenglass, where passengers can transfer to the adjacent narrow gauge Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway. Shortly, the line approaches Drigg, the site of a station and sidings for a low level nuclear waste processing center. Then, the tracks run parallel to the Irish Sea into Seascale, and then the massive nuclear complex at Sellafield, with its own station to serve the facility. Nuclear flasks travel the line to the site for processing, but formerly, the Calder Hall power plant generated electricity. What still remains though are the remnants of the Windscale Piles, that caught fire in 1957. Here, the double track portion of the line also ends. The stations of Braystones and Nethertown serve holiday cabins in the area, before arriving in St. Bees, Corkickle, and Whitehaven, following the sea once again. After Parton and Harrington, it makes sense to conclude the route at Workington, home to port sidings, and the location of a former goods yard. If possible, trains from current operators would bring the route to life, namely, DRS and Northern. Although, I'd set the route back slightly to allow DRS's Class 37s to be seen. These workhorses hauled both passenger trains, and nuclear flasks. For a more contemporary version, DRS's Class 68s fill this role. Optionally, DRS's Class 20s were flask train regulars too. Northern's DMUs are frequent sights, with two car Class 156s being the norm. Prior to their replacement, Pacers also filled this duty. Newcomers to the route are Northern's CAF built Class 195s.
Would be a lovely run, if a little light on traffic levels. I have the old Railscene cab video, filmed from a Class 108, which so long as you ignore Jeremy English’ inane constant babble, provides magnificent viewing all the way from Barrow to Carlisle.
We really need a modern Northern route but Barrow to Workington would feel a bit incomplete in my mind, as the route really ends at Carlisle. Barrow to Lancaster as the Furness line would be a good alternative, similar scenery and more services too.
