Threlkeld Quarry and Mining Museum

It was at the platform on Threlkeld station in the summer of 1962, that I climbed down from the footplate of the Ivatt Class 2 after what is still one of the most exciting events of my life. The driver had summoned me up front at the first stop after leaving Penrith and I sat on his seat while the loco bucked and shook its way towards Keswick. Totally exhilarated by my experience, I dismounted at Threlkeld in case there were any inspectors around at our destination, as was explained to me at the time. It was the start of our family summer holiday but nothing that happened during the rest of the week could match it, though bunking round Carlisle Canal and Kingmoor sheds probably came quite close, come to think of it.

Threlkeld has changed quite a bit since then. The line has closed and the station is no more. Up the hill a bit, though, the granite quarrying operation that was still open in the 60s has left plenty of reminders behind in the form of a mining museum served by a steam-run, two-foot gauge heritage railway which is very much open for tourists, in spite of being perhaps a little off the normal beaten track within Lakeland. The original nineteenth century quarry was not rail connected but after reopening in 1949 a line was laid from the quarry sites down to the “main line” at Threlkeld, where there was also a concrete factory. Granite was excavated for railway ballast and road building, too. When the enterprise closed for the second time in the 1980s, much of the site was still occupied by abandoned machinery and most of the old buildings still stood. It then opened again, this time as a playground for those who want to spend their leisure time operating diggers and excavators, for which this was obviously the ideal location. They still come for the weekend twice a year to pursue their hobby in this most realistic of settings.

The railway operates one steam locomotive, in addition to the diesels. The 0-4-0 saddle tank, Sir Tom, named after Sir Tom Callender of British Insulated Callender Cables, was built in 1926 by Bagnall of Stafford. It formerly worked at BICC’s Kent factory site. It takes the selection of open and covered carriages up the half-mile of track - including one steep section at a 1 in 20 gradient - to the top quarry. There are plans underway to extend the railway in the near future.  

The mining museum is very good. They have a wealth of rock specimens showing the different uses made of the granite, as well as geological maps and diagrams explaining the Lake District’s rich history when it comes to deep level mine working for a wide range of minerals, including in the village of Threlkeld itself. From here they burrowed deep under Saddleback, the mountain that looms over the valley to the north. Extra funding has been acquired for a new museum centre nearer the entrance to the site, which is now well under way close to the old Threlkeld station platform and the track bed of the Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway that I had the great pleasure of travelling on a number of times during the summers of 1960 and 1962. 

   

Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway

It’s been a long time since we travelled on this one. In the intervening half a century, or so, the L&HR appears to have just carried on doing its own thing and doing it very nicely. Its own thing is taking full advantage of its Lake District location and selling itself very effectively as a tourist railway. Proximity to the honey-pot sites at Windermere and Bowness helps in this respect and the link with the lake ferries is a key component. Foreign visitors and coach parties are very much part of the formula.

The same three British Railways survivors from the age of steam are still here but although the Ivatt Class 2 was resplendent in the yard, she too was receiving attention, whilst the two unique Fairburn tanks were both out of action in the sheds. It was left to the Hunslet WD industrial No. 25 Sapper, lined out in an attractive Kent and East Sussex Railway livery to provide passenger services on the day.

The short journey up the side of the River Leven passes the important industrial heritage site at Backbarrow, where remaining evidence of eighteenth-century iron making is gradually being appropriately preserved. The hotel we stayed in there was once a factory making the blue dye used in soap powders. I came here by coach as part of a six-form field course based near Carlisle in 1966, and remember our geography teacher, Brian Gordon, pointing out that the windows of the factory were all stained blue as a result of the no-doubt rather uncomfortable working practices taking place inside.

The Stainmore Railway

We called in to Kirkby Stephen East station on our way to the Lake District. The Stainmore route was a coast-to-coast railway that crossed the Pennine moorlands, joining Darlington on the East Coast Main Line in the east to Penrith and Tebay on the West Coast Main Line in the west. The line was opened by the South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway in 1861, primarily to carry coal and iron ore. The mountain route involved the construction of a series of bridges and viaducts. The line closed as a through route in 1962.

The Stainmore Railway Company was set up in 2000 as a heritage centre based on the station site at Kirkby Stephen, which has since been restored. Trains operate on a short section of reinstated track heading west. On the day we visited, two beautifully restored ex-LNER Gresley teak carriages were sandwiched between two top-and-tail diesels for the brief round trip along the line. As with so many of the heritage lines during this hot summer, the usual steam power was not operating because of the risk of lineside fires. Part of the track bed to the east of the station has become a multi-use recreational path, which heads off up the Eden valley and into the hills where some of the remaining viaducts can still be seen.

Princes Risborough station

Chiltern Railways run all passenger services out of Princes Risborough, namely north east to Aylesbury from the bay platform one, north to Banbury, Oxford and Birmingham from platform three and south to London Marylebone on platform two. A central fast line to London allows expresses not stopping here a clear run through the station. This junction station also had branches to Watlington and Thame that closed decades ago, before the Chinnor heritage line was re-established from platform four. The site also boasts the largest remaining GWR designed signalbox in Britain. It operated between 1904 and 1991 and is now being refurbished by the heritage railway, although signalling itself is controlled from Marylebone.

The original GWR station building remains in place at the station entrance and facing onto platform two. The station building houses a ticket office, which is open for most of the time that trains are running. Platform two is bi-directional so that trains, and especially freights, can access the east spur to the north of the station towards Aylesbury. Our visit coincided with the arrival of two Class 66s, top and tailing aggregate wagons and taking that route. We also saw one of the push and pull Marylebone-bound expresses shoot through on the centre road behind Class 68 No. 68031. These locos, surely one of the best diesel designs of all time, look resplendent in their more recently applied Chiltern blue livery.

  

Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway

The C&PRR began life as the Watlington and Princes Risborough Railway in 1872 but was uneconomic from the start and was taken over by the GWR in 1883. It closed to passengers in 1957 and to goods and parcels in 1961. The section between Chinnor and Princes Risborough was retained to serve the Chinnor cement works until 1989. The heritage railway association took it over in the following year and ran their first train in 1994. In 2025, the link with the main line and platform 4 at Princes Risborough station was reinstated.

It was a scorcher on our visit last week, so much so that the usual steam service could not operate because of the fire risk, and so we were left in the hands of Brush Type 4 No. D1501 [47402] for the round trip from the pleasantly restored Chinnor station.  

Railart 2026

The Guild of Railway Artists annual exhibition opened yesterday in the gallery above Kidderminster Railway Museum at the Severn Valley Railway. There are 58 paintings on display, all in the representational style and most paying tribute to the age of steam. Two outstanding pieces by Malcolm Root set in Southampton docks were attracting a lot of attention at the preview. I was particularly drawn to the work of Stephen Warnes, who captured an unusual angle for his Misty Morning Carnforth M.P.D. and displayed admirable technical ability and imagination in Evening Train from Edinburgh. He also struck a chord with his Morning Train - Albula Line, set at Tiefencastel, Switzerland, which we had enjoyed first-hand only last year.  

 

The Chester Railway Poster

I’d run the Chester poster past Chris from the online catalogue and had been pleasantly surprised by her response. I could see what she meant. The colours were vibrant and it was clearly in excellent condition. It almost looked too good to be true for a ninety-year-old piece of paper. Could it be a modern copy? The short answer is no. Modern copies are not made to the standard sizes of the past and they’re printed on good quality art paper. The white background is very white and not faded off-white, which tends to happen to the originals. How come it looks so good then? Who knows what folk have done with their posters once bought. It looks to me that this one has been laid flat in a map chest. There are no folds and it has been backed to linen. I would be surprised if it’s ever been framed and put on display. Two small stamps in the bottom right-hand corner prove it to be a taxed Belgian import [or export], signed in 1939, and more or less conclusive proof of its authenticity.

This Chester poster has appeared at auction a number of times over recent years. The stamps in the corner prove to be a useful identifier, of course. There are other examples of the same poster out there, as well. Greg Norden’s research, printed in 2007, showed that by then copies had been sold at auction five times, reaching £481 at Christies in September 2003. Sellers of railway posters do sometimes go to fine art sales as a first port of call, but my guess is that railwayana auctions are probably better suited to reaching higher prices. If I was to spend time as a dealer, I would keep a close eye on the fine art sales like Bonhams and the specialist online poster sales like Onslows, or, indeed, other provincial auction houses, and bid only at a lower price or at the reserve price and if successful then take them to a railwayana sale in the hope of making a profit there.

The image on the Chester poster is taken next to one of Britain’s best-known and most loved rivers - the Dee. We had walked the nearby Shropshire Union canal towpath in 1967, hand in hand, and crossed the footbridge visible in the background on a Sunday school outing. Chester was part of our growing up. I went trainspotting there on numerous occasions and in all weathers during the 1960s age of steam. I was born and brought up in Cheshire when Chester was our county town, and we have just kept on going back there ever since. I have a strong affinity with Chester, and I’m delighted to have acquired this poster to help prompt more fond memories. Hardly a snip at £480 plus buyers’ premium and with framing yet to come, but worth every penny for a special item that gives us both pleasure. Claude Muncaster is an artist I’d heard of but did not know much about. It turns out that he has good pedigree and a reputation as a leading landscape painter in those inter-war years. One of the auction houses put a date of 1937 on this particular piece. Maybe I’m imagining a slightly art-deco style to the figures. Chester waterfront was obviously the place to be in your best togs, as Europe slid inevitably towards war again.

I have my own little piggy bank for frivolities like railway posters. This pot of disposable income has nearly run out now as it was accumulated when I was still earning money. The result is that round our house we have reminders in every room of places we’ve been and times we’ve had there in the form of some distinctive original artwork and these fantastic, large, colourful and sought-after images, designed with the prime purpose of shouting out to rail travellers “just look at me” from station walls all around the country. It’s heritage and legacy at the same time. Each one tells a story, even if it’s mostly about us. Nobody is going to dispose of these in a hurry [famous last words].