Salveson Paul - The Settle-Carlisle Railway

THE

SettleCarlisle Railway

THE

SettleCarlisle Railway

PAUL SALVESON

First published in 2019 by
The Crowood Press Ltd
Ramsbury, Marlborough
Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2019

Paul Salveson 2019

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the authors and publishers rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 1 78500 638 8

Dedication

I would like to dedicate this book to all those who fought, in the face of conventional wisdom, to oppose the closure of this magnificent railway and who have continued to support its renaissance.

Paul Salveson
Bolton,
April 2019

Acknowledgements

I am particularly grateful for the tremendous help given by members of the Friends of the SettleCarlisle Line (FoSCL), the SettleCarlisle Railway Development Company, the Settle and Carlisle Railway Trust (SCRT)and the Cumbrian Railways Association (CRA). Special thanks must go to Mark Rand, Richard Watts, Martin Bairstow, Bryan Gray and David Joy for taking the time to comment; and particularly to the archivists of The Settle-Carlisle Railway Trust and The Cumbrian Railways Association.

I am also deeply grateful for the assistance I have received from Nigel Mussett, Martin Pearson, Edward Album, Bob Swallow, Paul Kampen, Tony Freschini, Douglas Hodgins, Ruth Annison, Andrew Rosthorn, Harvey Scowcroft, Steven Leyland, Drew Haley, Ken Harper, Gordon Allen, Geoff Weaver, Vernon Sidlow, Dick Fearn, Marion Armstrong, Martin Bairstow, Brian Eaton and Solomon Ng.

I would stress that any errors in the book are entirely my own responsibility.

Foreword

As a teenager, living in London, the Settle and Carlisle line was a long way away, but already seemed familiar. The two terrible accidents, high in the hills, described compellingly by L.T.C. Rolt in Red for Danger, made the railway and the terrain it went through feel very familiar; and North of Leeds by Peter Baughan was similarly evocative of the railway, the story of its building, and the countryside it traversed. Then came the end of steam in 1968, and the Fifteen Guinea Special; I persuaded my parents to buy me a ticket, and on a memorable day, I first saw the whole line from British Rails last steam train.

Id think it would be impossible for anyone with any sense of romance not to regard the line with affection, if also respect. It probably should never have been built, but for competition between Victorian railway companies, and when it was, it was an expensive and deadly job, across wild and inhospitable countryside. It was hard to run (and still is), because even though steam and unfitted freights have gone, the remoteness and the weather still conspire to make operations and maintenance costly and challenging. But also, the line is an incredible survivor: it nearly closed, having been run down for years by British Railways, perennially short of money and resource to keep it going, and only saved by luck, political chance, a huge community effort, and by a little official subterfuge.

But now its future is assured. Since 1968, Ive made several trips along the railway, but none more enjoyable than on the train hauled by Flying Scotsman in March 2017 that reopened the line after Network Rail spent 30m or so restoring the railway after the Eden Brows collapse. If that had happened even fifteen years earlier it would have been the end, but the railway in Britain has turned a corner, and a line like the Settle and Carlisle is valued for the contribution to the economy of the area it goes through, for tourism and because connectivity brings growth, jobs and houses across Britain.

Pauls text is important because it describes all this, but it also focuses on people the people who built it, operated and maintained it, and fought for it when it was under threat. Too many railway books deal only with facts and figures when there are heroes to be found, engineers and builders to admire (and grieve over, given the huge loss of life in construction), and drivers, firemen, guards and signallers to hear stories from.

Its a real pleasure to be asked to write a foreword to this compelling description and story of the line, written by someone with intimate knowledge and real enthusiasm for it. I read the text from cover to cover in one sitting; many of you will too. And then, of course, you have to travel on the line for the first time, or again. Whenever you go, whatever the season, this text will help you enjoy one of the magnificent railway journeys of the world.

Sir Peter Hendy CBE, Chairman, Network Rail

Map of the route. NIGEL MUSSETT

Introduction

Why another book on the SettleCarlisle Line? Its almost certainly the most written-about railway in Britain, if not the world. The first book wholly dedicated to the line was Houghton and Fosters excellent work, The Story of the SettleCarlisle Line, published in 1948. Many more have followed, including Peter Baughans monumental work The Midland Railway North of Leeds, published in 1966. Others have covered different aspects of the lines operation, architecture and motive power. Each has its own particular merit, reflecting the deep affection that this line inspires.

I do have one claim to originality. As far as Im aware, Im the only person to have written a history of the line who actually worked on it. I was a guard at Blackburn depot in the 1970s and one of my regular turns was working freight trains to Carlisle over the Midland, as we still called it then. This experience gave me both a great love for the line and an insiders view of it. I describe my experiences in .

This book attempts several things. First of all, to provide an accessible overview of the lines history aimed at the intelligent general reader, bringing the story up to date. The railway enthusiast market is already very well catered for, but hopefully it will be of interest to them. Secondly, I wanted to bring in a strong social element, highlighting the importance of the people who worked on the line, those who travelled on it and the men and women who fought so hard to save it.

The power of steam: A BR 9F heavy freight loco blasts away from Blea Moor with a Widnes to Long Meg freight, 9 April 1966.