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. 
The Settle Carlisle Trust and FoSCL collaborated with Three Peaks Arts to host a series of workshops and displays at Ribblehead, Horton and Settle Stations on the 8th and 9th of September. The displays featured the paintings, photography, embroidery, pottery and sculpture of local artists and craftspeople, all of a very high standard.
The 2019 FoSCL Christmas Lunch is being held at the Golden Lion (Duke Street, Settle, BD24 9DU) on 30th November..
The guest speaker is Paul Brown, FoSCL Chairman, who will outline his hopes for the future.
There will be a raffle in aid of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.
There may be a few places left, contact Martin or Rachel Pearson, 01729 824428, email [email protected]
The 2019 FoSCL Christmas Lunch is being held at the Golden Lion (Duke Street, Settle, BD24 9DU) on 30th November..
The guest speaker is Paul Brown, FoSCL Chairman, who will outline his hopes for the future.
There will be a raffle in aid of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.
There may be a few places left, contact Martin or Rachel Pearson, 01729 824428, email [email protected]
RMT Strike Action, Saturdays 8th, 15th, 22nd 29th September 2018
Due to the planned strikes, the following changes have regrettably been made to the FoSCL Guided Walks Programme:
This will feature the work of local artists, displayed at Ribblehead, Horton, and Settle stations. The event will be staffed by the artists themselves. It is an opportunity to welcome people who may otherwise not visit, and to engage with local businesses. See the attached poster for full details.
Welcome!
This is the first monthly newsletter, intended to keep everyone informed of events and notices. It also affords myself the opportunity to say what a pleasure it has been to meet many of you and to hear of your contributions.
Due to the planned strikes, the following changes have regrettably been made to the FoSCL Guided Walks Programme:
On Sunday 12th August the DalesRail will be part cancelled!
Passengers from Blackpool to travel on a York service to Blackburn, a bus will take them to Hellifield where a train will be waiting for them, this having run ecs from Skipton.
For the return train, the 17.25 Carlisle to Leeds will be re-timed to leave at 17.48, the path of the DalesRail.
On arrival at Hellifield buses will be waiting to convey passengers in to Lancashire.
For those who may have missed The Yorkshire Dales and The Lakes Settle-Carlisle episode on 24th July, you can see it for the following 30 days at
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-yorkshire-dales-and-the-lakes/on-demand/67250-006
Jolly good it was too.
The 2018 FoSCL Christmas Lunch will take place at the Golden Lion, Settle on Saturday 1st December. Guest speaker is Edward Album on the subject of the attempt between May 1988 and April 1989 to privatise the line.
For full details, menu and booking form click on the Events tab on the home page.
FoSCL campaigned for the early morning southbound train to stop at the smaller stations along the line when through trains in each direction were introduced in the last franchise. Eventually Garsdale, Langwathby and Lazonby were added, leaving just Dent without a service until after 10 am!
FoSCL met Northern Rail's timetabling manager and pointed out that there were 4 minutes slack at Ribblehead and that a stop at Dent would only add 1 1/2 minutes. Nothing happened for a while. Finally, 5 years later, this train and the northbound one will stop at Dent.
Dent Station building, right next to the platform of England's highest mainline station, is up for sale. Present owner Robin Hughes writes:
"After 11 years of thoroughly enjoyable ownership, I am downsizing at Dent by retaining the Snow Huts and selling the Station which comes on to the Market on 1st June.
Dent Station is a fabulous property and restoring it and owning it as a holiday let over many years has been a great pleasure.We've had many lovely guests over the 11 years.
There will be a full programme of Guided Walks organised by FoSCL this summer. For the new leaflet, see http://www.foscl.org.uk/guided-walks/current-leaflet
Sunday 20th May marks the first day of the biggest Leeds-Carlisle timetable shakeup in 25 years. Two extra trains each way on a Sunday bringing the total to six each way, not brilliant but a big step forward from the four each way that we had up until now. Thanks DfT for specifying this in the franchise and Northern for implementing it on time.
Due to the RMT strike the Guided Walks scheduled for Saturday May 26th to relaunch the FOSCL Guided Walks have been cancelled.
The programme will now relaunch on SUNDAY MAY 27th
The FREE 10 mile Explorer walk starts at Horton Station at 1016 upon the arrival of the 0859 train from Leeds. It will be a Moderate walk through Arcow, Oxenber Wood and Feizor before traversing Giggleswick Scar and descending into Settle for the 1644 train to Leeds. Fine views all the way with moderate climbs and descents and several stiles.
On Wednesday 9th May there will be a further one day strike on Northern Rail services by the RMT. Please see https://www.northernrailway.co.uk/strike for details.
Following the confirmation of the new train timetable and the appointment of new Co-ordinators the popular FoSCL GUIDED WALKS will resume from SATURDAY MAY 26th.
FREE Walks with experienced knowledgeable friendly guides will be offered every Saturday and some Sundays to give the opportunity to explore places around the line on foot. Some walks will use bus links to explore places further afield like Hawes and Swaledale.
From 20th May there will be a much changed timetable on the Settle-Carlisle Line, for the first time in nearly 30 years! There will be one more train in each direction on weekdays and two more on Sundays. FoSCL influenced these improvements by lobbying the Department for Transport in advance of the current Northern Rail franchise.
For details see https://www.settle-carlisle.co.uk/tickets-times-travel/timetables/settle-to-carlisle-timetable/
Now a regular annual event, ride2stride is a festival of walks, talks and music along the fabulous Settle-Carlisle railway line.
It's a week long celebration of the wonderful landscape and culture of the western Dales and Eden Valley.
The festival is made up of lots of events and activities and things will be happening along the length of the line. Walks will be led from stations by experienced walk leaders. Speakers will share their local knowledge and love of the area, and the pubs will be buzzing with music and song.
We were saddened to hear of the death of Sir William, FoSCL's President for many years. He regularly visited the Settle-Carlisle, not just as FoSCL President but also as Chairman of the Railway Heritage Trust. It was he who saved the Flying Scotsman.
His local newspaper, the Henley Standard, wrote:
"Sir William McAlpine, who lived at the Fawley Hill estate with his widow Lady Judith McAlpine, passed away yesterday (Sunday, March 4) following a period of illness.
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