News

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.

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 12^th 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

Visitors to the Dales may have wondered at the plaques dedicated to the memory of railway navvies in the parish churches of Holy Ascension in Settle and St Leonards in Chapel-le-Dale.  They mark the men that died in accidents during the building of the railway between Settle and Dent in 1869 and 1876.  These deaths raise intriguing questions about the men who made the ultimate sacrifice during the building of the railway.  The number of deaths is an appalling statistic, and every one of them was someone’s son and possibly a husband and father.

PLANS by the Friends of the Settle Carlisle Line (FoSCL)to become a member of Government backed Community Rail have been given the support of Craven District Council.

Members of the council’s Policy Committee were told membership of the Community Rail Partnership could provide access to additional funding and support, as well as formal recognition as a consultative body for the planning and delivery of rail services.

Community Rail is a government-supported programme which enables community involvement in the planning and delivery of rail services in a local area.

A reduced train timetable for essential journeys during lockdown will be introduced on many @northernassist routes from Monday 18th January, see https://www.northernrailway.co.uk/travel/timetables.  On weekdays the Settle-Carlisle service will be reduced from 8 trains each way to 4.  We're supportive of this, you can't justify any more than 4 trains each way when there are so few people travelling at the moment..

There has been a joint submission from the chairmen of the Friends of the Settle-Carlisle Line, the Settle-Carlisle Railway Development Company and the Settle & Carlisle Railway Trust to the Government's "Union Connectivity Review"..  Below is the text of the summary..

('the map is based on UK ATOC rail map showing relevant lines).

We've received a message from Giggleswick Railway Circle, together with a great photo of a Class 37 on the Bentham Line: 

An updated timetable came into force from 14th December 2020.  We're now back to our normal pre-COVID service.  Let's just hope that in the New Year we'll be able to promote rail travel again.

For full details see the attached timetable.

The Upper Wensleydale Railway Association (UWR) is pleased to announce that its scheme for reinstating the railway to Hawes, North Yorkshire, has been included in the second round of applications to the Department for Transport’s Ideas Fund for Restoring Your Railway[1]. The fund is designed to help selected applicants to “fund transport and economic studies and create a business case” via awards of 75% of agreed development costs up to £50,000, with the remaining 25% met by the applicant.

The Friends of the Settle-Carlisle Line have purchased Dent Station, comprising the main station building and the immediately surrounding area.  This adds another station on the Settle-Carlisle Line to those already in the family and owned by the S&C Trust’s Property Company, Ribblehead, Horton-in-Ribblesdale and Kirkby Stephen.  Dent is the highest mainline station in England.

*A message from Northern Trains regarding the annual Winter Offer for Dales Railcard holders: 

“Firstly, thank you for your continued support over the years of Northern and specifically the annual winter offer for Dales Rail Card and West Yorkshire Metro card holders.

For five days, from Saturday 24 until Wednesday 28 October 2020, the Settle and Carlisle line between Settle Junction and Kirby Stephen will be closed.

Network Rail will be replacing two underbridges, Banks and Forsters, which are located along the route between Settle and Blea Moor.

In addition, Network Rail will also be competing the final stages of the major refurbishment on the Grade 2 listed Ribblehead Viaduct, which started in the Spring.

Dent Station, England’s highest mainline railway station building - standing at 1,200 ft above sea level, has been purchased by the Friends of the Settle-Carlisle Line.