[9][10][11] The 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.

Central Station was initially the northern terminus; the line was extended northwards to Siddick Junction a year later.

[13] 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.

This line - opened in 1887 and often referred to as the "Northern Extension" - was the half-hearted outcome of what was originally intended as a direct cross-country route to Scotland for Cumberland ore. As conceived it would have continued the founders' approach of bypassing all established interests to join up with the Caledonian Railway and send its loads to Glasgow over the Solway Viaduct.

[30] The 1920 Working Time Table shows relatively few Goods trains, with just one a day in each direction booked to call at Workington Central.

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.

"[31] The associated drama was all the greater because all the company's lines abounded with steep inclines[32] and sharp curves,[33] frequently requiring banking.

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.

[8] Its key role had been to give coke from County Durham an additional route to Workington's furnaces, known locally as "The Works".

Diversions and specials, for example to football matches,[41] continued to use the station and line, but it was not easy to use as a through north–south route because all such trains had to reverse at Moor Row or Corkickle.

[44] By 2013 aerial images show the trackbed through the station site had become "Central Way" used by the West Cumbria Cycle Network.

The line's bridge over the River Derwent north of the station had had its railway spans replaced with ones suitable for a foot and cycleway, using the original abutments.