Roosecote Branch
47444 “University of Nottingham” heads a down passenger at Salthouse Junction, Barrow in Furness in the Winter of 1985.
The semaphore in the foreground was for trains joining the down main from the Roosecote Branch. At one time, the branch was a chord called the Piel Loop that connected to the Rampside and Piel branch down to Roa Island with a second line immediately branching off south to Stank Mine.
After the second world war, the line became the access for coal traffic feeding the Roosecote power station. In the 1990s the station was converted to gas – taking advantage of the adjacent Morecambe Bay gas field - but as a coal powered generator it operated from 1955 until its closure in 1986. However coal trains seem to have stopped in 1983 with coal deliveries then being delivered by road and the power station running at around 50% of its design capability. That lack of use was evident from the state of the branch at this time.
Roosecote Branch
47444 “University of Nottingham” heads a down passenger at Salthouse Junction, Barrow in Furness in the Winter of 1985.
The semaphore in the foreground was for trains joining the down main from the Roosecote Branch. At one time, the branch was a chord called the Piel Loop that connected to the Rampside and Piel branch down to Roa Island with a second line immediately branching off south to Stank Mine.
After the second world war, the line became the access for coal traffic feeding the Roosecote power station. In the 1990s the station was converted to gas – taking advantage of the adjacent Morecambe Bay gas field - but as a coal powered generator it operated from 1955 until its closure in 1986. However coal trains seem to have stopped in 1983 with coal deliveries then being delivered by road and the power station running at around 50% of its design capability. That lack of use was evident from the state of the branch at this time.