BB: Plumpton Junction Traditional Cache
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(small)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
The Bardsea Branch (BB) : intended originally as a new main line to Barrow only two miles were ever constructed crossing the Ulverston canal on an opening bridge and terminating at Priory Station just short of the village of Bardsea. The line opened for traffic on 27th June 1883.
Today retracing the route and spotting the significant industrial archeology alomg the way makes for a great afternoons ramble.
Plumpton Junction: Plumpton Junction used to be a very important place on the old Furness Railway, a key junction where branch lines left the main line from Barrow and Ulverston to Carnforth and Lancaster.
One went north to the Lakeside (Windermere), the Lakeside Branch Line and a second south to large industrial sites in South Ulverston and beyond to Conishead Priory, the Bardsea Branch
There were also many goods sidings here including ones that ran into the nearby Plumpton limestone quarries belonging to the North Lonsdale Ironworks
Company, whose Ulverston Ironworks were situated on the Bardsea Branch (on the site occupied since 1946 by Glaxo Pharmaceuticals/Glaxochem.
The junction had its own signal box that controlled a large section of the railway system and it was here where west-bound goods and mineral trains picked up a ‘banking engine’, an extra locomotive to help get them up the four mile hill to Lindal
In twenty years, the view has become unrecognizable. The signal box has gone, the many signals have gone, the sidings have all gone and the branch lines, you've guessed it, gone. This once, key junction has become just another piece of line
A sad reality. Its easy to miss the signs of the key role this area played in the industrial revolution.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
ghpxrq haqre ynetr rzorqqrq obhyqre
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
Loading Treasures