Trains and trains and trains

A grand day out on the South Tynedale Railway

Sorry for the long silence - I've been riding the rails.

All good things come in threes and this last couple of weeks I've been to the opening of Kirkby Stephen East station; for a ride on the South Tynedale Narrow-Gauge Railway and up and down (and up and down and up and down...) between Settle and Carlisle with a clipboard asking passengers cheeky questions on behalf of Friends of the Settle-Carlisle Line.

And what links all this together - apart from the trains that is - is volunteers. Passionate, dedicated, some might say obsessive people who spend years of their lives putting back what previous governments destroyed - or in the case of the Settle-Carlisle line, came very close to destroying.

The Settle-Carlisle railway has always been part of my life. When I was a little girl the line ran through our farm. As tiny children we thought that the steam that came from the blow-holes in Blea Moor tunnel was dragon's breath and ran screaming every time we heard a train whistle. When we got older woe betide anyone who was late home for dinner - when that 12.10 went over Arten Gill viaduct every kid at the top of Dentdale knew to run home.

My dad feeding sheep above Arten Gill viaduct

Today the Settle-Carlisle line attracts thousands of passengers - commuters, tourists, walkers, mums taking their kids into Carlisle for school shoes - all these and more took part in my survey last week. It may be the most scenic line in Britain and one of the top ten railway journeys in the world but it's also an important part of the rail network, public transport for rural communities and an essential link between the urban centres of Yorkshire and the Western Dales. What other area of walking country is served so well by a mainline train. Get out there and get walking.

A Tale of Two Railways

Merrygill Viaduct spans Hartley Beck in Cumbria. Ribblehead it’s not. Merrygill is a mere 9 arches on the disused Stainmore Railway but still it makes for fine walking on a summer’s day.

Merrygill Viaduct

We went up on Tuesday, travelling from Saltaire on the Settle-Carlisle line. The train was packed, mainly with walkers using this fantastic way to get out into the Western Dales. At Settle, Horton, Ribblehead and Dent – off they piled, heading for the hills in the sunshine.

We stayed put and enjoyed the ride all the way to Kirkby Stephen. The station is remote, a good mile and a half from town, but a newly constructed path keeps you off the busy road.

Traffic-free  - hurrah. Tarmac - boo

We were heading for Stenkrith Park and the start of the Northern Viaducts Walk, a section of the old Stainmore Railway which has been restored for walkers and cyclists by the Northern Viaducts Trust.

The view from the footbridge at the start of the Viaducts Walk

Our route took us along the railbed, past platelayer's huts and the site of the signal box, until a privately owned section forced us to detour via Hartley village.

Old signal box

Although parts of the disused Stainmore line are walkable, including the wonderful Smardale Viaduct, now a Nature Reserve, there are still gaps.

Eventually the Trust hopes to fill those gaps and complete the route from Newbiggin-on-Lune to the site of Belah Viaduct, in it's day the highest railway viaduct in England, making almost eleven miles in all.

I hope that they do. The best railway lines are the ones that are open and working like the Settle-Carlisle but if that's not possible then let's at least preserve something of our railway heritage and enjoy these paths through the countryside.