The Settle-Carlisle Railway

Yorkshire’s Finest

Drystone walls climb the hills as they have always done. Those wonderful limestone walls that symbolise the very soul of the Yorkshire Dales with their endlessly-varying patterns of grey against green; ragged squares and oblongs marching to impossible heights until they disappear into the heather- cloaked moorland on the summits. Through this most distinctly rugged of landscapes runs the 73-milelong Settle to Carlisle railway line, whose twin tracks climb purposefully from the valleys to the high fells, where foxes

bark and the distinctive calls of curlew and red grouse fill the moorland air.

There is no other railway line in England which runs through such spectacular scenery, and by rights it should never have been built, such were the engineering difficulties of constructing a line over the North Pennines. For the 19th-century engineers, the harsh terrain presented a tremendous challenge to their ingenuity, skill and technical abilities and yet they persevered.

Today, the Settle to Carlisle line is often referred to as ‘England’s greatest historical scenic route’. It’s a tribute to the navvies and engineers who built it – the 325 bridges, 21 viaducts and 14 tunnels are lasting monuments to their endeavours. Although steam locomotives still make the run from time to time, these days it’s modern diesel sprinter trains that roar along the track. Over the years the type of train may have changed, but the grandeur of the rolling countryside they pass through remains the same.