Parton
Derwent
Railway Society
Parton
A
selection
of photographs depicting permanent way maintenance at Parton in 1979.
All
photographs courtesy Keith Fidler.
Parton
lies between Whitehaven and Workington on the West Cumberland Coast. The
railway is built on a shelf just above sea level and in the shadow of an
old colliery tip. The ground has a history of being unstable, particularly
after periods of prolonged heavy rainfall. The railway runs by the site
of the old Micklam brickworks, Harrington No.10 colliery and Lowca tar plant
- all now just a memory.
Click
on thumbnail for a larger image
This is a locality
with great historical significance to railway historians. Just a few yards away
was the site of the former Lowca Foundry, established in 1763 by Adam Heslop
and partners. For over 160 years, steam locomotives in a variety of gauges were
built here and exported all over the world. Some of the products of the foundry
survive to this day, perhaps the most famous being Talyllyn
and Dolgoch,
narrow gauge locomotives built by Fletcher, Jennings & Co. and operating
on the Talyllyn Railway in the Snowdonia National Park, Wales.
The history of
the works was documented by Ian Kyle in the 1974 published book " Steam
from Lowca - A History of the Rise and Fall of Locomotive Building at Lowca
Foundry 1840 - 1921"
The
Parton Project
