[Source: Alan Young]
Blencow Station Gallery 1: August 1938 - September 1962  1 An ex-LNWR 'Cauliflower' 0-6-0. No. 8428 waits at Blencow with the 2.24pm Workington - Penrith on 27 August 1938. Only the door of the brake compartment at the far end is open, suggesting Blencow saw no passengers on this occasion. No. 8428 was new ex-works in February 1897. She went on to become British Railways No. 58377 and was one of handful to actually carry a BR number. She survived until June 1952, being withdrawn from Springs Branch, Wigan. The train is of ex-LNWR stock, with the usual arrangement of a brake vehicle at each end.
Photo from James Lake collection  
1864 1: 2,500 OS map (revised c1880s), Although dated 1864 it shows Blencow station which opened in 1865. The NLS website copy states that the sheet was zincographed in 1889; this later date explains not only the inclusion of the railway and station but also field acreages and parcel numbers which would not have appeared on the original printing. A short section of double track is shown through the station although Bowtell notes that it was not used as a passing place until 1901. The main building is shown on the down (south) platform with a small shelter on the up platform. Sidings are provided on the down side, east of the platforms, together with a Weighing Machine’ – a standard feature of railway coal depots. In the light of the station being represented as having two platforms, the 1898 version (q.v.) provides a remarkable contrast.
1898 1: 2,500 OS map. Blencow station is no longer shown to possess a passing loop and two flanking platforms; now there is only the down / south side platform and a single track. A long siding extends south-eastwards from beyond the east end of the station. Double track was installed in 1900-01 from Redhills Junction to Blencow. It is possible that this map captures a short-lived state of affairs in which the up platform has been removed and the down platform has been extended forwards onto the site of the former down line while the earthworks shown north of the single track are being prepared for the new up line and platform and the up goods loop. It is possible that the long siding is intended, when complete, to be the new down line from Redhills Junction, and in the meantime it might serve as a siding into which coke trains could be shunted.  1925 1: 2,500 OS map. Since the 1859 map major additions have been made to the main down side building. An up goods loop has been installed behind the up platform permitting goods trains (for example carrying lime from Flusco Quarry) to be held while an up passenger train calls at the station. A signal box (opened in 1901) is provided at the west end of the up platform. Sidings have been added on the down side. The layout is shown prior to the opening of Blencowe Lime Works: see1957 map extract. 
Looking east at the signal box and up platform of Blencow station in September 1950. The pent-roofed timber waiting shed is the only building on the platform. It is possible that this was removed during the period 1952-56 when the station was closed to passengers. The signal box was opened in 1901 when double-line working was introduced between Blencow and Redhills Junction. The Tweedy 22-lever frame was replaced by the LMS with that company’s 35-lever frame. The box closed on 4 December 1967.
Photo by HC Casserley  An up three-coach passenger train draws into Blencow station and is passing the signal box in the 1950s. The signalman is holding the single-line token. The locomotive is an Ivatt 2MT 2-6-0. It is hauling BR Mk1 stock (introduced in 1951) in maroon livery (used since 1956). It was unusual for such stock to be employed on secondary routes in the late 1950s/early 1960s, from which period this photo must date. The loco is displaying lamps in ‘Express Passenger’ position, so with Mk 1 stock the rake of coaches has possibly been detached from (or will be attached to) a portion of a main line
train at Penrith. Photo by Robin Barbour courtesy of Bruce McCartney 
A view of Blencow station and goods yard in May 1959 seen from the rear cab of Derby Lightweight M79012 was one of the original West Cumberland cars which had to be modified to add structural strength. What we can see here is the horizontal bar added behind the windscreens. Later cars were built with the horizontal bar as integral parts of the body framework. At far left the yard crane can be seen and at bottom left is what appears to be point rodding concealed within trunking. This was probably for the benefit of staff working on the ground, or possibly to protect the rodding and cranks from snow and ice. The locomotive is an unidentified Ivatt 2MT.
Photo by HB Priestley 
All of the intermediate stations between Penrith and Keswick, apart from Braithwaite and Brigham) received BR(LM) totem nameplates in the late 1950s. One such sign accompanies the oil lantern on a post on the up platform. The pipe running up the post presumably fed acetylene gas to the light a lantern in earlier days. This is the author’s first photo of a railway subject, taken from a Newcastle – Keswick train in July 1962.
Photo by Alan Young  Blencow station looking west from the down platform in September 1962. . The entrance to the station is through the doorway between the two protruding gables; a totem sign is seen above the doorway. One of the gables protrudes further onto the platform, this was the stationmaster's office and side windows in the gable gave the stationmaster a good view along the platforms.Photo by Ben Brooksbank Click here for Blencow Station Gallery 2:
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Blencow station originally possessed a single platform on the down (south) side of the line. The single-storey stone building was a handsome ‘twin pavilion’ structure, not unlike the style used by the Midland Railway in the 1870s but for some reason quite different from the other minor CK&P buildings. Each of the two protruding gables was pierced by a pair of arched openings divided by a mullion and a stone finial decorated the summits of the gables. An office and two waiting rooms were provided in the building. Close behind it stood the stationmaster’s house, a two-storey structure designed by John Ross, architect to the CK&P and constructed by J R Harrison. The station was initially oil lit, but the CK&P was unusual in deciding to install acetylene generators even at its minor stations. One was fitted at Blencow (recycled from Penruddock in August 1899) in a ‘gas house’ added to the western end of the platform building. Two years later more powerful equipment replaced the original plant. A separate structure further west was used to store carbide. 
In 1908 a pair of cottages was built at Blencow by the CK&P, one for the signalman and the other for the permanent way ganger in charge of the length west of Blencow station. These cottages stand adjacent to the road east of the station.
In 1964 Jim Airey, who had been stationmaster at Bassenthwaite Lake, took charge of Blencow. He remained in post until 1966 and was to be the last stationmaster. On 28 June 1965 the refuge siding, dock siding and the other down yard facilities were taken out of use, but the down refuge siding was restored from 4 December 1967. The line from Keswick through Cockermouth to Workington lost its passenger service on 18 April 1966 and the remaining Penrith – Keswick section was demoted to ‘One Engine in Steam’ working on 4 December 1967 leaving only one track in use. At Blencow the up line and platform (by now without a shelter) was retained for passenger train use so the down platform where the main building was located was abandoned. For several years the down track remained in place as far as the west end of the station. In the mid 1960s an electric lamp was placed at the east end of both platforms, replacing the oil lighting.
Goods trains continued to pass through Blencow for several months between Penrith and Flusco Quarry, located between Blencow and Penruddock. However this traffic ended on 19 June 1972. The Thompsons remained at Blencow station after it closed; they extended the station house, taking in the former down platform building and creating an informal museum of CK&P memorabilia. 
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