England's Most Scenic Mainline Railway
This page provides access to all news items, including older items that are no longer displayed on the homepage. The items are displayed in reverse order, with the most recent first. The FoSCL 'News' feed is also available via RSS. 
We are back! For the first time since 2019! (Thank you, COVID)
With all your familiar attractions: Stocking fillers, Christmas cards and gifts, Calendars, Books and much, much more!
Plus Mince pies and sherry or soft drinks, hot drinks too. All with musical interludes.
If you have been before, you will know what a lovely day this is; if you are new to our Open Day, we guarantee that you will have an enjoyable time.
A group of people living with Dementia, their carers and volunteers plus On Train Guides from FoSCL took the train to Kirkby Stephen West station on the Settle-Carlisle Line recently and were picked up by classic coach to visit Kirby Stephen East and its heritage line. They were taken on a trip to Merrygill and Podgill viaduct, had a train trip on the line and were given lunch and refreshments at the station - all free!
A big thank you to all volunteers at Kirkby Strphen East Heritage Line.
FoSCL Calendars for 2024 now available from the FoSCL webshop.
Size A4 - price £12.50 incl postage & packing
Size A3 - price £18.00 incl postage & packing
FoSCL baseball cap, colour maroon and black, standard size, price £12.50 incl postage and packing
It's Dementia Awareness week and Settle-Carlisle Line along with other local organisations has signed up to become accessible to people living with Dementia and supportive of people living with hidden and visible disabilities travelling along the line. To find out more ar Dementia in North Yorkshire ring 03300578592 Dementia Forward
We are looking for volunteers to work in the shop on Settle station operated by the Friends of the Settle Carlisle Line (FoSCL).
Work as part of a small team working in the shop and selling refreshments,books, railway memorabilia and other items to visitors using the shop. This is a rewarding opportunity to support your local community and work with like-minded volunteers.
No retail experience is necessary and training will be given on how to use the till, credit card machine and stock management.
If you'd like to know more please contact – Ann:
We need more station gardeners at Appleby, Dent and Horton-in-Ribblesdale.
If you are recently retired or are looking for an opportunity to support your local community by volunteering we might have just the role for you.
We are looking for people to help with the management of the beautiful gardens at the above iconic stations.
We will provide equipment, training, personal protective equipment and opportunities to meet with colleagues.
This is an exciting role for the UK's largest railway support organisation.
The Friends of the Settle Carlisle Line are delighted to be supporting a pilot initiative for a bus service from Kirkby Stephen Station to Penrith running on Saturdays from 1st April 2023. The bus connects at Kirkby Stephen Station with the 0748 train from Leeds (0824 Skipton and 0850 Settle). This recreates a much-missed link with the West Coast Mainline withdrawn in 2016 and an opportunity to reach Penrith and the northern Lakes from our line. Residents of the Upper Eden area will also be able to reach the 0849 southbound train to Leeds.
Our popular Ribblehead heritage walks, trails and tours will get off to a great start during the Ride2Stride festival on Wednesday 26th April. Details of other future dates will also soon be published.
Free FoSCL Guided Walks this Autumn & Winter.
Come and join us on Car Free Walks from stations along the Leeds-Settle-Carlisle Railway.
FoSCL 2023 calendar now available to purchase from the FoSCL webshop.
A4 size £4.00 incl P& P,
August 17th 2022
We had another sunny day with a breeze to keep us cool as we toured the nature reserve and took in the 64 foot Viking long house. Its entrance is clearly marked in the land. We did have to move on the resident sheep.
This week visitors to the shanty area were particularly interested in the strong house and office. This area was excavated by archaeologists in the 1990s as shown in the photos.
Call for Volunteers
If you have recently retired or are thinking of what you’d like to do to help your community why not consider joining The Friends of the Settle Carlisle Line (FoSCL) volunteer team? We have 100+ volunteers mainly in Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumbria but also from the South Coast of England, London, Derbyshire and Scotland.
We undertake a variety of interesting roles all of which support the Settle Carlisle Line as follows:
VOLUNTEER ON-TRAIN-GUIDES WANTED
The Settle-Carlisle Railway is a massively popular tourist attraction, especially in summer months. Overcrowding on some trains during 2021 has led train operator Northern to allocate a good deal of extra seating capacity for the line this summer.
Email from Alan Burtles concerning additional meetings for the Giggleswick Railway Circle
Do you fancy getting out and about around our beautiful county this spring? Yorkshire Cancer Research and Welcome to Yorkshire have teamed up to bring you ‘Tour de Walkshire’.
The Friends of the Settle-Carlisle Line new Appleby running in board project was completed on 21st April, the signs were created by Ged Pinder in FoSCL's Settle workshop, were painted by Cliff Johnson and were funded by FoSCL along with the posts. Northern Trains funded the digging and concreting of the posts and mounting of the boards. Now all that’s left to do is to place plant tubs directly underneath the centre of the signs to prevent people from walking underneath and bumping their heads.
From 8th March, there is an extra bus service to coincide with the schools going back, 1600 from Skipton to Ribblehead. Not ideal, but better than nothing. FoSCL has a better emergency timetable which would have provided a train instead of a bus, but the rail industry is very inflexible and can't put in any improvements till mid-May, when it is hoped that the full timetable can be restored.
We will be welcoming guests from the 12th April to our self-catering accommodation at England's highest mainline station. You can book online now for later this year and as far ahead as 2022. See http://www.dentstation.co.uk/ for full details and photos of the accommodation and to see avaliability and rates.
‘The Staycation Express’ Summer 2021 season
This website and its content is copyright of Friends of the Settle Carlisle Line - © Friends of the Settle Carlisle Line 2010-2023 - except where otherwise stated.
