Heritage Railway Magazine Settle & Carlisle Revival Special Issue

The Settle & Carlisle railway runs across the roof of England, reaching the highest point on any main line railway in the country. Today it carries a frequent and well-patronised passenger service and considerable heavy long-distance freight traffic.

But we are lucky that the line has survived two attempts to close it and in fact should probably never have been built at all.

There could now be a 72 mile abandoned trackbed passing through such places as Blea Moor, over Dent Head and Arten Gill viaducts and the legendary Ais Gill summit, but fortunately, sufficient people felt strongly enough to campaign successfully to stop this happening and keep one of Britain’s favourite railway lines open.

Since the line was reprieved from closure for the second time in 1989 after an eight-year battle, train services have been expanded. In fact they were expanding even while it was still the intention to close the line, but saving the line was not the end of the story, it was just the beginning.

This is the story of the revival in the fortunes of the Settle & Carlisle.

Many closed stations have reopened and are being restored to their former glory, freight traffic has returned and steam-hauled excursions over the line have gone from strength to strength.