Dalegarth for Boot railway station

Dalegarth for Boot
Location
Place	Boot
Area	Copeland, Cumbria
Operations
Managed by	R&ER
Owned by	R&ER
Platforms	2
History
1876	Opened as 3 ft (910 mm) gauge
1913	Closed
1916	Reopened as 15 in (380 mm) gauge
Stations on heritage railways in the United Kingdom
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Douglas Ferreira arrives at Dalegarth, July 2006

Dalegarth for Boot railway station is the easterly terminus of the 15" gauge Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway in Cumbria. It has a café and shop for passengers, along with a run-round loop, turntable and siding for trains. It is located next to the Whillan Beck, a tributary of the River Esk flowing from the isolated Burnmoor Tarn.

The station has stood on this site since the mid 1920s, when it was moved from in front of the nearby miners' cottages. In the days of the 3' gauge line, it was up at Boot, but soon after the conversion of the final stretch to 15" gauge, it became apparent that the miniature locomotives could not cope with the gradient. The current station is on the route of a late-Victorian mine branch from the cottages to Gill Force, across the River Esk.

For about 80 years, the station building was a converted second-hand hut from the weapons testing establishment at Eskmeals near Ravenglass. The current building, utilising its railway embankment site to create a split-level layout with an education/meeting suite below the main cafe and shop area, was opened on 21 April 2007 by music producer and railway enthusiast Pete Waterman. At the climax of the Cumbria shootings in 2010, passengers had to remain within the station building under armed guard.

River Irt arrives at Dalegarth, February 2010

Preceding station	Heritage railways			Following station
Beckfoot		R&ER		Terminus

Coordinates: 54°23′46″N 3°16′30″W / 54.396°N 3.275°W / 54.396; -3.275