Ghost Train #18 - Bowes Station Traditional Cache
BellisClan: no longer able to maintain my Geocaches.
Ghost Train #18 - Bowes Station
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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This is the 18th in our series of caches placed near to old Railway
Stations in County Durham. Unfortunately most of these stations
have long since ceased to operate, however some of the old station
buildings have survived. Parking is available very close to the
cache location, in fact you could even 'Cache and Dash' this one.
Originally Bowes Station had two platforms with the main station
building and stationmaster's house on the up platform and a stone
built waiting shelter on the down platform. There were four sidings
with two loops at the rear of the down platform with a loading bank
and two further sidings to the south of the two loops serving coal
drops. There were two small goods sheds and the signalbox was sited
at the east end of the up platform, this controlled access to the
goods yard. There are two flights of stone steps to the station
from the road below. Immediately west of Bowes Station a
realignment of the A66 is on the original course of the trackbed.
In 1856 the South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway was formed
with the object of building a freight line from Bishop Auckland to
Barnard Castle and across the Stainmore summit in the Pennines to
Tebay on the Lancaster & Carlisle Railway. This is a sparsely
populated area and initially there were no proposals for a
passenger service with the proposed line carrying iron ore from
Barry in Lancashire to the blast furnaces of Teesdale while in the
opposite direction coke and coal were carried to the iron ore mines
which had flourished in the Furness district of Lancashire. The Act
for the construction of this line which by now included a passenger
service, encountered practically no opposition and the Royal Assent
was granted on 13th July 1857 with work starting at Kirkby Stephen
six weeks later. Despite the difficult terrain, progress on the 35
mile line between Barnard Castle and Tebay was rapid and this
section opened to mineral traffic on 4th July 1861 with the
passenger service commencing from a second terminus at Barnard
Castle on 8th August 1861. The timetable for September 1961 showed
only two trains in each direction between Darlington and Tebay and
the line always struggled to attract many passengers beyond Barnard
Castle; at the turn of the century before motor busses reached the
area several of the smaller stations were unable to run at a
profit, including Bowes. Apart from the regular passenger service a
number of excursions used the line including summer
‘Saturdays only’ trains between the north-east coast
and Blackpool and an unusual service which lasted until the lines
closure was an unpublicised passenger train once every two weeks,
normally on a Friday. This was The National Union of Mineworkers
train from Durham to Ulverstone carrying injured and sick miners to
their convalescent home at Conishead Priory. Its normal route was
Durham, Bishop Auckland, Barnard Castle, Bowes, Kirkby Stephen and
Tebay.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Va gur ubyr pbirerq ol n fgbar.