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Lowca Light Railway



The Lowca Light Railway (LLR) was a small railway on the coast of Cumberland, which is now part of Cumbria, England.

The line had industrial origins, but in the early twentieth century it expanded into carrying passengers in association with the Cleator and Workington Junction Railway (CWJR). This venture petered out in 1929, whereafter the line reverted to industrial use. It ended its days in 1973, having outlived almost all its larger neighbours.

The line's legal title was "The Harrington and Lowca Light Railway", but it was widely referred to by the shorter form.

To make any sense of the history of the industry in the area the reader must distinguish between the location "Harrington", which was and remains an area rather than just a village, and the concerns, notably an ironworks and collieries, which included the word "Harrington". "Harrington No. 10 Colliery" was in Lowca, several miles south of and many feet above Harrington Harbour.

It is likely that the first Harrington Harbour waggonway dated from the improvements to the harbour itself in 1760. By 1844 there was sufficient infrastructure in place and expected demand for Henry Curwen of Workington to force the nascent Whitehaven Junction Railway (by 2015 the Cumbria Coast Line) to build a bridge over their new line at Rose Hill to carry "Mr Curwen's waggonway". This line was later leased by James Bain and Partners, owners of the ironworks in Harrington and became known locally and on at least one RCH Map as "Bains's Tramway."

Bain's Tramway - the LLR's precursor - is shown on an 1864 OS map as a tramway running from Harrington Harbour south along "ROSE HILL" past Harrington Parks and a disused chemical works then swinging inland to "John Pit (Coal)" and its neighbour "Hodgson Pit (Coal)". On the map the middle of the word "Reservoirs" would be the site of the future Rosehill Junction and the disused Chemical Works the approximate site of the future Copperas Hill station.

In 1879 the CWJR opened and built a branch from Harrington Junction which connected with Bain's Tramway at the future Rosehill Junction. Harrington Junction is shown on the 1882 Railway Clearing House map above as "JUNCTION WITH RAILWAYS 3 & 4". The map shows the tramway continuing to John Pit and makes no mention of Micklam or Lowca. It also shows Bain's No 4 Pit on the Gilgarran Branch.


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