Enviable track record

On a sunny mid-week morning, Settle railway station is packed with passengers waiting for the train to Carlisle.

On the footbridge, a man is having his photograph taken as he clutches a book about Yorkshire's most famous line. Down on the platform, Brenda, from the Isle of Wight, explains that she and her friends are on a coach trip around northern England. They've already been sailing on Windermere and to Blackpool but this train ride will be the highlight of their week, she says. Even in the deepest South, it seems, they know all about the spectacular scenery of the Settle-Carlisle.

Today, business for England's highest main line is booming, and Network Rail has just spent 100m re-laying the track and installing new signalling.

It was all very different 25 years ago when a handful of passengers used the dwindling number of trains which called at rundown stations, and British Rail was determined to close the route.

Victorian engineers and navvies had taken seven years to create the route across the Pennines but a century later, BR insisted that the line's infrastructure was crumbling and would be just too costly to repair.

At the heart of their case was the monumental Ribblehead viaduct. A quarter-mile long and spanning 24 arches, it carries the line more than 100ft above the valley floor. But water had penetrated the huge stone pillars and engineers said it would cost upwards of 5m to make it safe.

Expresses and freight trains were diverted to other routes, leaving only two stopping trains a day, supplemented by weekend services for walkers.

Yet the campaign to save the line was the biggest ever seen, with 26,000 written objections to the closure and a string of legal challenges exploiting every possible technical loophole. As late as 1988, the Government said it was still minded to close the line, but 12 months later it bowed to public pressure, and the Settle-Carlisle was reprieved.

However, stopping the closure was just the start of the battle to revive the line. Major repairs – not least to Ribblehead viaduct – were still needed, and dilapidated stations were crying out for attention. So, in 1990, the Settle and Carlisle Railway Trust was born to look after the structures and work alongside the long-established campaigning group, the Friends of the Settle Carlisle Line and the Settle & Carlisle Development Company, set up to promote commercial ventures on the line.

This year, the trust is celebrating its 20th anniversary having been involved in projects from repairing the viaduct itself right down to replacing missing station clocks.

Along the route, entire stations have been rejuvenated in the traditional red and cream livery of the old Midland Railway, which built the Settle-Carlisle route.

The result is a strange hybrid, a main line which is still part of the national rail network yet has the feel and period charm of a volunteer-run preserved railway.

Andrew Griffiths, from the trust, believes this has been an integral part of its success. He said: "There was a genuine feeling of surprise when the line was saved, followed fairly quickly by a feeling of 'Now what?' There was still an awful lot that needed to be done, especially with the viaduct, and there was a feeling that BR would need help to fund the work. The trust helped to bring in heritage grants to help pay for those repairs. Eventually, it cost about 3m, which was about 60 per cent of the original estimate. The BR engineers seem to have erred very strongly on the side of caution.

"Crucially, there were also a lot of stations that were more or less still in their original form, though they would need a lot of TLC to bring them back into their original condition. The Midland Railway architects built them to a fairly standard plan, though there were little variations and each was built in local stone so the Dales stations look quite creamy while Appleby is in red sandstone.

"The buildings were able to be leased off to the trust and restored. That means that passengers today see them pretty much as they were when they were first built, making it probably the only heritage main line in the country. That makes a huge difference for the people who travel on the line and has helped to cement its popularity.

"Network Rail are very different from the old Railtrack or BR. They have invested 100m and the line is now in the best condition it has been for 100 years. It is a fully operational railway with commuters – especially at the northern and southern ends – and a lot of freight, as well as being popular with walkers, who are a very important part of the trade.

"But it also a tourist attraction in its own right. People all over the country know about it and we get a lot of coach parties. They are dropped off at Settle and then picked up at the other end of their trip. Although there have been no studies to quantify its value to the area in recent years, I'm sure it is a huge asset to the local economy. On a Sunday you can see 200 cars or more parked at Ribblehead and a lot of people have come just to look at the viaduct. Even more will be there if there is a steam train running."

Over the years, the stations at Horton-in-Ribblesdale, Ribblehead and Kirkby Stephen have all been painstakingly restored by the trust, winning several awards, and Kirkby Stephen, where Andrew and his wife, Rachel, now live as caretakers, was opened by Prince Charles.

Not that all the trust's work has been on such a grand scale. Clocks were an important part of the developing Victorian transport network with "railway time" helping to standardise timekeeping across the country. The Midland Railway installed a pendulum clock, made by William Potts and Sons of Leeds, in each stationmaster's house along the line but over the years of decline they were lost. The trust raised 10,000 for reproductions of the originals, albeit now electrically driven, to replace them at Horton, Ribblehead, Dent, Langwathby and Lazonby.

The latest plan, still being finalised, will be on far bigger scale and involves restoring the stationmaster's house at Ribblehead, where it is proposed to provide accommodation and a visitor centre to ensure that the on-going story of the Settle-Carlisle, the men who built it, the protesters who saved it and the volunteers who restored are not forgotten.

David Ward, the trust's chairman, added: "It seems incredible that 20 years have passed already. The trust has delivered so much, but there is still so much more to do. Looking after historic buildings is an ongoing and intensive commitment. We're up for the challenge, but can't have too much support. So far, we haven't exactly shouted from the rooftops about our great achievements, but now is the time to really make people aware of what's been done and how they can help."

YP MAG 29/5/10