News

Our fantastic new heritage style waiting shelter at Appleby is now open for use. Cleverly designed, matches the station buildings. Project management was by FoSCL, it was part funded by The Railway Heritage Trust, Settle-Carlisle Railway Development Co and Northern Rail. Great workmanship by Hopleys builders of Settle, who also built a similar shelter for us at Settle.  

Now passengers will be able to shelter from the rain and cold at times when the ticket office is not open.  Actually it still needs some seats inside, but they won't be long in coming!

A CD of original songs written to celebrate the lives of the men and women who built the Settle-Carlisle Railway in the 1870s has been released by well-known folk singer, Karin Grandal-Park.

Exhibitions at 3 stations...

The organiser says: just a quick note to say thank you to those who came to the shows at Settle Victoria Hall this season, I appreciate your support. I hope you have found the evenings as interesting and entertaining as I have. The 'bring your own' evening last Wednesday I found very enjoyable and I plan to add it again to next year's programme. Thanks to everyone who brought such a varied and creative range of subject matter!

Now and again the Settle-Carlisle trains are overcrowded.  Not unusual on the Northern Rail network and there are various reasons quoted, primarily shortage of rolling stock.  This is partly due to completion of the electrification of the Manchester-Bolton-Preston line being delayed for around two years, with a corresponding delay in the availability of the diesel units which were expected to be freed up by this. 

Appleby has a superbly restored water tower and crane which is regularly used to replenish southbound steam trains.  Northbound, there is more of a problem: Hellifield, where there is a water supply both sides, is a long way from Carlisle and there is a need for watering at Appleby northbound.  So what to do?  Often, a water tanker arrives by road and parks at the north end of the car park.  A long hose can reach to the tender of the locomotive, the train stops for up to half an hour, passengers stretch their legs and buy souvenirs in the FoSCL shop.  Everybody is happy except the tanker dr

A new timetable comes into force on Sunday 19th May.  There are big changes to some lines, but very little change to the Settle-Carlisle Line.  The southbound express will now leave Carlisle at 1340 instead of 1404, which goes some way to fill the gap between the 1049 departure and the express.

DalesRail offers passengers the opportunity to enjoy the wonderful Dales countryside on foot led by an experienced guide or the chance to join a tour to discover the hidden history of Carlisle, or to come along simply for a train journey through some of Britain's most beautiful countryside on a special day out.'

 Richard Watts, Chair Community Rail Lancashire and Secretary of the East Lancashire and Clitheroe Line Community Rail Partnerships commented:

Thanks to Michael Summers for this contribution and for the photo.

Plans for DalesRail in 2019 are well underway and the season will run from Sunday 19th May until Sunday 8th September 2019 inclusively.

https://www.communityraillancashire.co.uk/lines/dalesrail/

Settle Carlisle Railway line as never seen before.

The John Disney Memorial Day

Settle, Saturday 11th May 2019

Including a Reception at the Royal Oak, Settle at 15:45

Dr John Disney 1960 -2018

The Railway Room at The Museum in The Folly, Settle

The Railway Room, telling the story of the famous Settle to Carlisle line, has re-opened after the installation of a completely new exhibition. The railway from Settle to Carlisle is one of the world’s greatest railway journeys. It is seventy-two miles long, built by the Midland Railway Company, and opened in 1876.

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Now open!  Ribblehead Visitor Centre cafe has reopened after major refurbishment over the winter, from damp-proofing to redecoration, refurnishing and a brand new coffee machine!  Much of the work was done by FoSCL volunteers.  Nick Pearce, Chairman of S&C Railway Properties Ltd, said "Thank you to everyone who came to help; to those who made long journeys; to those that started at crack of dawn; to those who stayed late to get jobs done; to those who worked at home to prepare in advance; to those that did the less attractive jobs; to thise who kept going when ob

News from Northern Rail's Regional Community Manager: 

I am writing to let you know that RMT has agreed to suspend its strike action and recommence talks about the future role of the conductor. This follows positive discussions between RMT and Northern - brokered by ACAS Chair, Sir Brendan Barber. This is really good news for customers and businesses across the North.

Appleby is half-way between Settle and Carlisle.  We think it deserves more prominence so here is a diary of events in 2018.  Thank you Mike Summers for this contribution.

The RMT has announced that Northern Rail conductors will strike on every Saturday in January.  This is likely to mean no Saturday trains at all on the Settle-Carlisle Line and very few replacement buses.  

According to the Northern Rail web site, https://www.northernrailway.co.uk/strike , Northern has called on RMT to suspend its damaging strike action and accept an independent ACAS inquiry.

The latest figures from the ORR (Office for Road and Rail) for station footfall, that's the number of people getting on and off trains at a particular station, show that the Settle-Carlisle Line passenger numbers have recovered very well after the line was closed at the northern end for over a year by the Eden Brows landslide.  The chart shows a time series from 2005-06 to 2017-18 for Armathwaite which as the nearest station to the landslide was particularly badly affected.  

All change!  We've been swapped.  Leeds trains now depart from Platform 5 at Carlisle and Newcastle trains from Platform 6.  Why?  According to Virgin station staff it's because passengers from Newcastle had a habit of piling off the train and getting perilously close to the WCML tracks at Platform 4.  So, are Yorkshire folk better behaved than Geordies?  More likely that with the advent of a half-hourly Carlisle-Newcastle service (yes, half-hourly, what would we give for a regular two-hourly service?!), they'll regularly have two trains at the same platfor