Tracing a Lost Railway into England's Wildest Landscape

The Lake District is Britain's busiest and most popular National Park but its also crippled by traffic and parking problems because it is only accessible by road. Luckily, Victorian industrial demand had already constructed a railway right through the heart of the area - the Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway. Unluckily, that railway had been closed completely in 1972 - just as mass tourism to Lakeland was about to take off. So what does the line look like in the 2020s when there are more cars on the road than ever before? And how likely are the growing calls to bring trains back to Keswick?

[guyroebuck]

You hero for championing the cause. The way to make road traffic less is to spend on railways. . A Proven Fact. ❤

[robertmaitland]

Threlkeld mining museum is a gem, well worth a visit for a ride on the train.

[geoffbrookes]

Interesting video ….thanks. I started work on the railway in August 1961. After 3 months, you could apply for your first free pass. Mine was from Walsall to Cockermouth, I travelled with a mate (who had to pay) and we stayed at Cockermouth youth hostel before having a few days walking holiday, staying at other hostels such as Buttermere and Derwentwater. Magic times, we were both 15.
This line, like so many others should never have closed. Now we have gone totally into reverse, building a line that nobody needs or wants, costing and wasting billions of pounds….yes …of course High Speed 2. Mad world. 🚂🚴‍♂️👣🇺🇦

[mikeclarke]

Nice one Ollie....a great part of the world. I can't imagine an old steam train service wouldn't make money these days. It looked cold on the day of filming. I remember weather like that, pretending to be smoking on the way to school...😂😂

[nickcaunt]

The Jewel in the Crown of tourist destinations in England deserves the highest priority!

[niallh]

Great video as always ❤ this railway will never fully reopen, the section from Keswick to Cockermouth has been largely destroyed by the building of the A66. The section from Keswick to Penrith could reopen (BR and the government of the time where crazy to close it) but it would need serious investment and politicians dont really like things that involve investment especially in transport....

[He-Banshee.]

A beautiful video showing how as you said, we just can't have nice things. The one close to home for me is the Burscough curves linking Southport to Preston. Another crying shame of a line being closed and for reasons that are baffling as it closes off so much access
There is a fight from us to get it reopen but seeing how poor they run the Manchester to Southport existing line I vet much doubt it

[chargeriderepeat]

Splendid video, I love disused railway lines, I was in Ivybridge a few months ago looking at the Plymouth line, the via ducts are awesome.
You would never run out of content covering the railways.

[jetsons]

Ollie, your intro narration was great. What a way to open the story. What a beautiful hike, even on a rainy day. Speaking of money, I have read/herd that most of the "Money" ends up going to London

[ColinH]

Excellent video about an area and a subject that I know very well indeed. Thanks very much for this.

[Brisletop]

Excellent film. Remember watching the trains in many places along the line, as youngster, Mum and Dad alway stopped for a picnic break along Bassenthwaite lake, before continuing on, to visit family in Greysouthern. O Dr Beaching what have you done. It seems most investment goes south, from any northern taxes. HS2, what's the use or need. We'll never be as big the Spanish high speed network. We're too small a country. Business people can fly, industry needs freight, normal people need value travel, not mach 1

[xrlad]

Reinstate it as a high speed light rail. You don’t need it for freight or intercity services. And light rail has the benefit of cheaper closer together stations. Longer trams these days can carry more people. Have car parks set up at each station.

[lifeschool]

The Keswick Council approved permission for a new railway with Penrith, but perhaps most of the money went in to digging up vast chunks of protected land for underground water mains to Manchester. So I doubt it will happen now.

[simonfunwithtrains]

There is a very good documentary film of this railway line made in the 1960, 70's I cannot remember the name of the film, but I expect someone has put it up on YouTube. We too have been along the last remaining parts of this line in the 1980's but now the Lake district rarely features on days out for us, as it so much busier than the Dales. Good informative film as always Thanks S&J

[joshuanishanthchristian]

Great video! For a solid while there I thought this video might finally reveal to me what the mysterious abandoned viaduct and line one can see from the WCML between Oxenholme and Penrith was, but alas it's a different line to the one I thought!

[philtt]

Great video Ollie. I often look over to the viaduct when driving along the A66 and wonder about the line. I think it would be great if they extended the cycleway to Penrith.

[colinjolliffe]

I worked in Workington over 20 years ago, they talked about reopening the tailway back then. It would be great for Keswick to have a train service. I lived 160 miles away, 100 miles up the M6 was less than half the journey, the 60 miles on the A66 would take longer, especially in the summer.

[youngmurphy]

We used to call "lost" railways disused railways. Funny how language changes over time.

By the way, I walked the section in Keswick on my way to Castlerigg Stone Circle and it was so lost it was part of the C2C long distance cycle route. 😂

[dixonpeter]

I travel to the lakes most weekends from Bishop Auckland, would have been fantastic to get a train over the old stainmore line to penrith then into the lakes!

[harriergr]

The Bump in the line to Blencow was done in order to negotiate the contours (Rails Through Lakeland book Vol 1 by Harold D Bowtell).
The station at Blencow was originally going to be called Newbiggin when they were planning the line, but was named Blencowe (note the e at the end of the name) in Jan 1865.
Interesting that you missed out The Big Tunnel, north of Keswick that has now been dug out and is back in use with hikers and cyclists.
Great video 👍.