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Heysham Port railway station serves the port of Heysham in Lancashire, England. It is the terminus of the Morecambe Branch Line from Lancaster and is situated south of . ==History== The station opened as Heysham Harbour (hence its current station code) by the Midland Railway on 11 July 1904. It was relocated to an adjacent site on 4 May 1970, and served boat trains for Belfast until the closure of the ferry route in April 1975. The train service was withdrawn on 6 October,〔 but reinstated and the station renamed Heysham Sea Terminal, on 11 May 1987〔 to provide a rail connection with the daily sailing to Douglas run by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company. The station acquired its present name on 28 September 1992.〔 This was under the Regional Railways sector of British Rail. As constructed, the station had three platforms, two signal boxes and an extensive goods depot and associated sidings to service the port complex (which dates from 1904). It handled a wide range of freight for export including livestock, parcels and latterly fuel oil from a distribution terminal operated by Shell. None of these types of traffic have been handled here since the early 1980s - all freight through the port, mainly containers, is worked by road. A frequent passenger service was provided by the Midland Railway for its work force at the port and the regular ferry sailings to Scotland, the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland. Four years after opening, the MR used the line as a test track for a pioneering system of electrification, utilising a trio of purpose built 3-car Electric Multiple Units powered by an overhead catenary carrying alternating current at 6600V, 25 Hz.〔("Electrification Pioneers" ) ''Gloucestershire Transport History''; Retrieved 2014-03-11〕 Stock for the line was built at the company's works and power was provided from their power plant at the harbour. Services ran to Morecambe on 13 April 1908 and by September extended to the LNWR main line station at . With two reversals required en-route and a relatively short journey between termini, the new units were well suited for the busy route, which operated on a half hourly frequency for much of the day. Long distance express trains routed by way of the former "Little" North Western Railway main line from via also used the station. The most notable was a daily through train to/from London St Pancras via connecting with the ferry to Belfast. After the 1923 Grouping, the station and port came under the control of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. The company continued to develop traffic but made alterations to the passenger services, replacing the St Pancras service with one from London Euston via and the West Coast Main Line and added a second regular boat service to and from Manchester Victoria. Services ran to and from Leeds and through carriages were provided for St Pancras passengers in summer until the onset of World War II. Nationalisation in January 1948 saw the London Midland region of British Railways take over the running - the company withdrew the old Midland EMUs as life expired in 1951 and two years later replaced them with three elderly ex-LNWR sets formerly used on the West London Line service between Earls Court and Willesden Junction (a fourth set was added in 1957).〔 The power feed was adjusted to use an alternating frequency of 50 Hz rather than 25 Hz. The units remained in use until after the Beeching Report in 1963, which recommended that services over the former NWR/Midland route from Lancaster be withdrawn and the line closed. Services to Morecambe would be retained, but only in connection with sailings to Douglas and Belfast which would be diesel-worked. The proposals were approved in August 1965 and the local service was withdrawn on 3 January 1966〔Marshall. p.158〕 The overheads were dismantled the following year, after the Midland line was closed to all traffic between Morecambe, Lancaster and . Freight traffic continued, although from June 1967 it operated via Morecambe, where all trains now had to reverse. A further change to traffic patterns came about in 1968, when ferry operator Sealink announced its intention to convert the two ships operating out of the port on the Belfast route to "roll-on/roll-off" car ferries rather than conventional passenger ships.〔 This required major alterations to the ferries and to the berths at both termini. At Heysham, the station building was demolished and its replacement built on an adjacent site. The station reopened for traffic on 4 May 1970. As part of this scheme, a new signal box and associated signalling was provided. The viability of the Belfast route was however compromised considerably by the Northern Irish "troubles" in the years that followed, to the point where mounting losses led to its withdrawal on 5 April 1975. That in turn made the connecting rail services redundant and to the eventual closure of the station to passengers a few months later. Freight traffic continued, but was only a fraction of what had been handled previously and BR accordingly decided to rationalise the station layout, mothballing the signal box, removing the signalling and disconnecting one of the two approach lines from Heysham Moss in 1977. The remaining line was then operated under "One Train Working" regulations, with the box acting as a ground frame for controlling the points to the sidings.〔 The disused station still had two platform lines accessible for use by railtours and special trains. By 1983 the oil trains had ceased and the terminal sidings were then lifted. Passenger trains eventually resumed in 1987 and in 1994 the layout was rationalised again as part of the programme of works associated with the building of the current Morecambe station. The last portion of double track on the branch from Holt Bank Junction to the former ICI sidings at Heysham Moss was singled, redundant trackwork was removed and the old signal box dismantled (it was subsequently donated to the heritage Dean Forest Railway and has been restored and rebuilt at ).〔("The Signal Box " forum - Heysham Harbour ) www.signalbox.org; Retrieved 2014-03-11〕〔("Steaming Around Britain's Railways - Forest of Dean, Part 1" ) www.crjennings.com; Retrieved 2014-03-11〕 After this work was completed, all that remained was the single line from Morecambe running into the one active platform and a private siding connection laid in the early 1970s into Heysham power station. Much of the land occupied by the old goods yard and disused platforms is now used by the Port of Heysham's owners, Peel Ports as a secure parking area for HGVs waiting for the ferries. The branch handles occasional freight trains operated by Direct Rail Services from the reprocessing plant at Sellafield to Heysham nuclear power station. They usually run once or twice-weekly and use the siding that diverges from the main running line a short distance east of the station. Access is by means of a ground frame unlocked & operated by the train crew and the trains are usually worked with a locomotive at each end to avoid the need for run-round moves when it reverses at Morecambe. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Heysham Port railway station」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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