Its purpose was to bring workers to and from the remote colliery, but on at least one occasion a passenger special called to take children to and from a Sunday School outing at St Bees.
[9] The line was one of the fruits of the rapid industrialisation of West Cumberland in the second half of the nineteenth century, being specifically born as a reaction to oligopolistic behaviour by the London and North Western and Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railways.
[11] The founding Act of Parliament of June 1878 confirmed the company's agreement with the Furness Railway that the latter would operate the line for one third of the receipts.
The key source summarises it "...the 'Track of the Ironmasters' ran like a main traffic artery through an area honeycombed with mines, quarries and ironworks.
"[20] The associated drama was all the greater because all the company's lines abounded with steep inclines[21] and sharp curves,[22] frequently requiring banking.
[24] The workings at Keekle Colliers' Platform exemplified the line's role, enabling coke and coal to be won and carried from a remote site to industries near and far.
The Cumberland iron industry led the charge in the nineteenth century, but became less and less competitive as time passed and local ore became worked out and harder to win, taking the fortunes of the railway with it.
After 1918 the position was reversed, when the litany of step-by-step closures and withdrawals was relieved only by a control cabin and a signalbox being erected in 1919 and the Admiralty saving the northern extension in 1937 by establishing an armaments depot at Broughton.