Clifton and Lowther railway station

Clifton & Lowther
Advanced Passenger Train southbound approaching the site of the station in 1986
Location
Place	Clifton
Area	Eden
Operations
Original company	Lancaster and Carlisle Railway
Pre-grouping	London and North Western Railway
Post-grouping	London Midland and Scottish Railway
Platforms	2
History
17 December 1846	Opened as Clifton
1 February 1887	Renamed Clifton & Lowther
4 July 1938	Closed to passengers
1 June 1951	Closed to freight
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
Closed railway stations in Britain A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z

Coordinates: 54°37′06″N 2°42′47″W / 54.618276°N 2.713119°W / 54.618276; -2.713119

Clifton & Lowther railway station was a station on the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway (L&CR) south of Penrith near to the village of Clifton. Although it was the original terminus to cross Pennines rail traffic on the Eden Valley Railway, it was rapidly by-passed by a new line and junction. The station, which was on the West Coast Main Line, was treated as a private stop by the Earls of Lonsdale.

The station opened as Clifton railway station on Lancaster and Carlisle Railway in 1846. In 1858 work began to build the Eden Valley Railway between Penrith and Kirkby Stephen via Appleby-in-Westmorland. It would primarily be for mineral traffic but it would also carry passengers. The terminus at the western end of the new line would be Clifton Station. Eden Valley passenger services used an island platform that also served the West Coast Main line. The station also had goods sidings, a turntable, and water tower.

However, even before the Eden Valley line opened, plans were conceived to build a northern junction that would provide a direct link between the industrial areas of West Cumberland and the northeast's coalfields around Durham and Newcastle. The Eden Valley line would provide a direct connection between the Cockermouth & Workington Railway's Workington to Penrith line and the .