Ten years later, in 1890, the community of Siddick had grown sufficiently to justify upgrading the station to handle the full range of passengers.

The new line was one of the fruits of the rapid industrialisation of West Cumberland in the second half of the nineteenth century, specifically being born as a reaction to oligopolistic behaviour by the London and North Western and Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railways.

[6] It was originally intended to drive the new line northwards across country to meet the Caledonian Railway and cross into Scotland by the Solway Viaduct, but an accommodation was made with the LNWR leading to the intended northern extension being greatly watered down to a line through Seaton (Cumbria) and the short link from Workington Central to Siddick.

[7] 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.

"[18] The associated drama was all the greater because all the company's lines abounded with steep inclines[19] and sharp curves,[20] frequently requiring banking.

Siddick Junction followed this pattern, with sidings, and engine shed, steelworks, a colliery and a dock within sight of the station.

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 at Harrington Junction in 1919 and the Admiralty saving the northern extension in 1937 by establishing an armaments depot at Broughton.

Diversions and specials, for example to football matches,[26] made use of the C&WJR line, but it was not easy to use as a through north–south route because all such trains would have to reverse at Moor Row or Corkickle.

Ironically this outlived all other C&WJR lines by nearly thirty years as the result of the Royal Navy using its combination of remoteness and dock access to establish an arms store at RNAD Broughton Moor.