A History of Workington Station

A History of Workington Station. . The Whitehaven Junction Railway Company opened their line for goods traffic from Maryport to Workington in November 1845. At first little consideration was given to passenger traffic and so no station buildings were provided. Tenders for the construction of the first passenger station were only invited in October 1846., Since the line was single track in those early days, the first station when constructed consisted only of a single platform with not even a canopy to provide shelter. From 1847 this station was shared with the Cockermouth and Workington Railway which had its own bay platform., In December 1853 a good train was mis-directed into this bay platform and demolished the booking office, the porter's office and the gentleman's waiting room, all of which needed to be rebuilt almost entirely. Unfortunately this rebuilding did not result an improvement to passenger facilities as evidenced by the town's Trustees complaint in 1858, that the town's Trustees complained that the platform is open to the prevailing winds, and (we) "believe Workington is the only first class station is Great Britain so unprovided with shelter.", The line from Maryport to Whitehaven (through Workington) was doubled by mid-1860 and at the time a new station was erected with buildings on each of the two platforms., In 1865 the two local companies, the Codermouth and Workington and the Whitehaven Junction, were both taken over by the much larger London and North Western Railway (LNWR) whose headquarters were in faraway Euston. The LNWR took ownership of the station and in the 1870s erected a locomotive shed which over the years, expanded into 10 roads in which maintenance and servicing could be carried out., To the north of the station the railway line ran through two level crowing at the eastern ends of South Quay/Church Street and Stanley Street. Frequent shunting operation caused considerable inconvenience to the townsfolk. In 1885 these crossings were replaced by the viaduct which carries the road over the railway to the harbourside and surrounding area to this day., The numbers employed in the ironworks in the Workington area increased rapidly during the 1860s and 1870s in 1851 the town's population was about 6280 but by 1881 had increased to some 14361. The station facilities did not keep pace with the increase resulting by the 1880s in numerous complaints. The gentlemen's waiting room was described as a damp, mildew apartment densely packed with people like herrings in a barrel. Following completion of the viaduct, work began on the construction of the station and layout which remains to this present day, being opened in November 1886., The station became 'Workington Main' but was known locally as the 'Low' station due to its position at the lower end of the town and to differentiate it from the Cleator and Workington's Central station which had opened in 1876., During the 20th century relatively few changes were made to the main station buildings. However in the latter part of the century the goods shed and many of the sidings and running tracks were lost. After the withdrawal of steam traction part of the locomotive shed was used to repair wagons before too was demolished., In 2016 a 'Transport Hub' was constructed at the station to encourage more people to travel by train. Improvements included a new 143 space car park on the site of the former goods yard and locomotive shed with a new access road. The attractively landscaped area includes a drop off area, disabled parking near the upon entrance and cycle parking facilities., More recently members of Workington Transport Heritage Trust have with the blessing of Network Rail and Northern, been re-decorating the station in the crimson colours and style of the former London Midland and Scott (LMS) Railway.