Editing Settle–Carlisle line (section)

== History ==

===Background===
The Settle–Carlisle line (S&C) had its origins in railway politics; the expansion-minded [[Midland Railway]] company was locked in dispute with the rival [[London and North Western Railway]] (LNWR) over access rights to the latter's tracks to Scotland.

The Midland's access to Scotland was via the [["Little" North Western Railway|"Little North Western" route]] to [[Ingleton, North Yorkshire|Ingleton]]. The [[Ingleton branch line]] from Ingleton to [[List of closed railway stations in Britain: K-L|Low Gill]], where it joined the [[Lancaster and Carlisle Railway]], was under the control of the rival LNWR. Initially the routes, although physically connected at Ingleton, were not logically connected, as the LNWR and Midland could not agree on sharing the use of [[Ingleton (Midland) railway station|Ingleton station]]. Instead the LNWR terminated its trains at [[Ingleton (L&NW) railway station|its own station]] at the end of Ingleton Viaduct, and Midland Railway passengers had to walk about a mile over steep gradients between the two stations in order to change into/from LNWR trains.<ref name="forgottenrelics">{{cite web |url=http://www.forgottenrelics.co.uk/bridges/ingleton.html |title=Ingleton Viaduct on |publisher=Forgottenrelics.co.uk |date=30 January 1954 |access-date=16 March 2014 |archive-date=5 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140305122430/http://www.forgottenrelics.co.uk/bridges/ingleton.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

An agreement was reached over station access, enabling the Midland to attach through carriages to LNWR trains at Ingleton. Passengers could continue their journey north without leaving the train. The situation was not ideal, as the LNWR handled the through carriages of its rival with deliberate obstructiveness, for example attaching the coaches to slow goods trains instead of fast passenger workings.<ref name="settlecarlisledotcocotuk">{{cite web |url=http://www.settle-carlisle.co.uk/history/index.cfm |title=History of the S&C on |publisher=Settle-carlisle.co.uk |access-date=16 March 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130216064624/http://www.settle-carlisle.co.uk/history/index.cfm |archive-date=16 February 2013 }}</ref><ref>Houghton, F.W & Foster W.H (1965 Second Ed) ''The Story Of The Settle - Carlisle Line'', Advertiser Press Ltd, Huddersfield, p.16</ref>

[[File:Lowgill Viaduct.jpg|thumb|right|Lowgill Viaduct]]The route through Ingleton is closed, but the major structures, Low Gill and Ingleton viaducts, remain. It was a well-engineered line suitable for express passenger running, but its potential was never realised due to the rivalry between the companies. The Midland board decided that the only solution was a separate route to Scotland. Surveying began in 1865, and in June 1866, approval was given to the Midland's bill, for which [[Samuel Carter (Coventry MP)|Samuel Carter]] was solicitor, and the '''{{visible anchor|Midland Railway (Settle to Carlisle) Act 1866}}''' ([[29 & 30 Vict.]] c. ccxxiii) became law.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://uudb.org/articles/samuelcarter.html|title=Samuel Carter|website=Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography|access-date=20 March 2018|archive-date=20 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180320171112/http://uudb.org/articles/samuelcarter.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Soon afterwards, the [[Overend, Gurney and Company|Overend-Gurney]] banking failure sparked a financial crisis in the UK. Interest rates rose sharply, several railways went bankrupt and the Midland's board, prompted by a shareholders' revolt, began to have second thoughts about a venture whose estimated cost was £2.3&nbsp;million (equivalent to £{{Formatprice|{{Inflation|UK|2300000|1866|{{inflation-year|UK}}|r=-7}}}} in {{inflation-year|UK}}).{{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}} As a result, in April 1869, with no work started, the company petitioned Parliament to abandon the scheme it had earlier fought for. However Parliament, under pressure from other railways which would benefit from the scheme that would cost them nothing, refused, and construction commenced in November that year.

=== Construction ===
The line was built by over 6,000 [[navvy|navvies]],<ref name=":1">{{cite book|last1=Wolmar|first1=Christian|title=Fire and Steam|date=2008|publisher=Atlantic Books|isbn=978-1-84354-630-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/firesteamhowrail0000wolm/page/161 161]|url=https://archive.org/details/firesteamhowrail0000wolm/page/161}}</ref> {{cn-span|most of them Irish, who worked in remote locations, enduring harsh weather conditions. Large camps were established to house the navvies, with many becoming complete townships with post offices and schools. They were named Inkerman, Sebastapol and Jericho. The remains of one camp – Batty Green – where over 2,000 navvies lived and worked, can be seen near Ribblehead. The Midland Railway helped pay for scripture readers to counteract the effect of drunken violence in these isolated communities.|date=June 2024}}

A plaque in [[St Leonard's Church, Chapel-le-Dale]], records the workers who died, both from disease and from accidents, while building the railway. The death toll is unknown, but 80 people died at Batty Green alone in a [[smallpox]] epidemic.<ref name=":1"/>

A memorial stone was laid in 1997 in the churchyard of St Mary's Church, [[Mallerstang]] to commemorate the 25 railway builders and their families who died during the construction of this section of the line, and who were buried there in unmarked graves.

The engineer for the project was John Crossley from [[Leicestershire]], a veteran of other Midland schemes. The terrain traversed is among the bleakest and wildest in England, and construction was halted for months at a time due to frozen ground, snowdrifts and flooding. One contractor had to give up as a result of underestimating the terrain and the weather – Dent Head has almost four times the rainfall of London. Another long-established partnership dissolved under the strain: that of William Eckersley and John Bayliss (1826-1900), Bayliss continued the project until its completion in 1877. They were contracted to construct the {{convert|23|mi|km|abbr=on}} section from [[Kirkby Thore]] to [[River Petteril|Petteril]] Bridge in Carlisle.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Davies|first1=Peter|title=Friends of the Settle Carlisle Line|url=http://www.foscl.org.uk/sites/foscl.org.uk/files/attachments/P-Davis_National-Achives_Research_Combined_0.pdf|website=FOSCL|publisher=National Archives|access-date=20 November 2015 |page=9 }}</ref>

The line was engineered to express standards throughout – local traffic was secondary, and many stations were miles from the villages they purported to serve. The railway's summit at {{convert|1169|ft|m|0}} is at [[Aisgill]], north of [[Garsdale]]. To keep the gradients to less than 1 in 100 (1%), a requirement for fast running using steam traction, huge engineering works were required. Even so, the terrain imposed a {{convert|16|mi|km|0|adj=on}} climb from Settle to Blea Moor, almost all of it at 1 in 100, and known to enginemen as "the long drag".

The line required 14 tunnels and 22 [[viaduct]]s; the most notable is the 24-arch [[Ribblehead Viaduct]] which is {{convert|104|ft|m|0|abbr=on}} high and {{convert|440|yd|m|0}} long. The swampy ground meant that the piers had to be sunk {{convert|25|ft|m|0|abbr=on}} below the peat and set in concrete in order to provide a suitable foundation. Soon after crossing the viaduct, the line enters Blea Moor tunnel, {{convert|2629|yd|m|0|abbr=on}} long and {{convert|500|ft|m|0|abbr=on}} below the moor, before emerging onto [[Dent Head Viaduct]]. The summit at [[Aisgill]] is the highest point reached by main-line trains in England. The tunnel at [[Lazonby]] was constructed at the request of a local vicar as he did not want the railway to run past the vicarage.<ref>{{harvnb|Davies|p=10}}</ref>

[[File:Dent Head Viaduct.jpg|thumb|upright=1.6|The ''[[LNER Class A3 4472 Flying Scotsman|Flying Scotsman]]'' crosses Dent Head Viaduct, August 2021]]

[[Water trough]]s were laid between the tracks at Garsdale, enabling steam engines to take water without losing speed.

The remains of the navvies' camp at [[Rise Hill Tunnel]] were investigated by [[Channel 4]]'s ''[[Time Team]]'' in 2008, for a programme that was broadcast on 1 February 2009.

=== Operation ===
The line opened for goods traffic in August 1875 with the first passenger trains starting in April 1876. The cost of the line was £3.6&nbsp;million (equivalent to £{{Formatprice|{{Inflation|UK|3600000|1876|{{inflation-year|UK}}|r=-7}}}} in {{inflation-year|UK}}){{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}} – 50 per cent above the estimate and a colossal sum for the time.

For some time the Midland dominated the market for London-Glasgow traffic, providing more daytime trains than its rival. In 1923 the Midland and the LNWR were both merged into the new [[London, Midland and Scottish Railway]]. In the new company, the disadvantages of the Midland's route were clear – its steeper gradients and greater length meant it could not compete on speed from London to Glasgow, especially as Midland route trains had to make more stops to serve major cities in the Midlands and Yorkshire. The Midland had long competed on the extra comfort it provided for its passengers but this advantage was lost in the merged company.

After nationalisation in 1948, the pace of rundown quickened. It was regarded as a duplicate line, and control over the through London-Glasgow route was split over several regions which made it hard to plan popular through services. Mining subsidence affected speeds through the East Midlands and Yorkshire. In 1962, the [[Thames–Clyde Express]] travelling via the S&C took almost nine hours from London to Glasgow – over the West Coast Main Line the journey length was 7 hours 20 minutes.

In 1963, the [[Beeching cuts#The Reshaping of British Railways (Beeching I)|Beeching Report]] into the restructuring of [[British Railways|British Rail]] recommended the withdrawal of all passenger services from the line. Some smaller stations had closed in the 1950s. Although the Beeching recommendations were shelved, it is clear that closure of the line was planned as early as the late 1960s. Such closure is referred to in paragraph 40 of the official report into the accident involving two goods trains between Horton-in-Ribblesdale and Selside on 30 October 1968, by Lt. Colonel I.K.A. McNaughton: <blockquote>"... Even if the Settle and Carlisle line were planned to form part of the long term railway network of the country, it would still come fairly low in the priority list for installation of AWS; this route, however, is planned for closure within the next few years ..."</blockquote> In May 1970 all stations except for Settle and Appleby West were closed, and its passenger service cut to two trains a day in each direction, leaving mostly freight.

Few express passenger services continued to operate, [[Waverley (passenger train)|The Waverley]] from [[St Pancras railway station|London St Pancras]] to [[Edinburgh Waverley railway station|Edinburgh Waverley]] via [[Nottingham station|Nottingham]] ended in 1968, while the [[Thames–Clyde Express]] from London to [[Glasgow Central station|Glasgow Central]] via [[Leicester railway station|Leicester]], lasted until 1975. Night sleepers from London to Glasgow continued until 1976. After that a residual service from Glasgow – cut back at Nottingham (three trains each way) – survived until May 1982.

=== Threat of closure ===
During the 1970s, the S&C suffered from a lack of investment, and most freight traffic was diverted onto the electrified [[West Coast Main Line]]. The condition of many viaducts and tunnels deteriorated due to lack of investment. [[DalesRail]] began operating services to closed stations on summer weekends in 1974. These were promoted by the [[Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority]] to encourage ramblers.

In the early 1980s, the S&C was carrying only a handful of trains per day, and British Rail decided the cost of renewing the viaducts and tunnels would be prohibitively expensive, given the small amount of traffic carried on the line. In June 1981 a protest group, the Friends of the Settle–Carlisle Line (FoSCL), held its inaugural meeting at [[Settle Town Hall]] and campaigned against the line's closure even before it was officially announced.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EMBIAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Settle+Town+Hall%22|title=To Kill a Railway|first=Stan|last=Abbott|publisher=Leading Edge Press & Publishing|year=1986|isbn= 978-0948135019|page=54}}</ref>

In 1984, closure notices were posted at the S&C's remaining stations. However, local authorities and rail enthusiasts joined together and campaigned to save the S&C, pointing out that British Rail was ignoring the S&C's potential for [[tourism]], ignoring the need for a diversionary route to the West Coast main line, and failing to promote through traffic from the Midlands and Yorkshire to Scotland. 
[[File:1986 Settle and Carlisle railway closure enquiry.jpg|thumb|1986 Transport Users Consultative Committee hearing in Carlisle]]
There was outrage over the closure plan: critics pointed out that this was a main line, not a small branch railway. The campaign uncovered evidence that British Rail had mounted a dirty tricks campaign against the line,<ref>{{cite web|title=History of the Settle Carlisle|url=http://www.visitcumbria.com/carlset/carlisle-settle-railway-history/|website=Visit Cumbria|access-date=12 November 2015}}</ref> exaggerating the cost of repairs (£6&nbsp;million for Ribblehead Viaduct alone)<ref>{{cite web|title=Battle to prevent the end of the line|url=http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/tahistory/featuresnostalgiapasttimes/4317034.Battle_to_prevent_the_end_of_the_line/|website=Telegraph and Argus|access-date=12 November 2015|date=24 April 2009}}</ref> and diverting traffic away from the line in order to justify its closure plans, a process referred to as [[closure by stealth]].<ref>Towler, p.74</ref>

Publicity over British Rail's tactics succeeded in a huge increase in traffic. Journeys per year were 93,000 in 1983 when the campaign began, rising to 450,000 by 1989.<ref name=MR-1989>{{cite magazine |editor-first=Ken|editor-last=Cordner|title=Settle-Carlisle line reprieved |magazine=[[Modern Railways]]|date=June 1989|volume=46|number=489|page=322}}</ref> As late as August 1988, the [[British Rail Board]] posted notices stating they had appointed [[Lazard Brothers]] to 'advise on the sale of the Settle–Carlisle line'.<ref>''Rail'' magazine No. 83 page 25, EMAP National Publications Ltd.</ref> On 11 April 1989, the [[Secretary of State for Transport]], [[Paul Channon]], announced that consent for closure of the line and the associated [[Ribble Valley line|Blackburn-Hellifield line]] would be refused.<ref name=MR-1989/> This was on the basis that, firstly, trial repairs to one span of the Ribblehead Viaduct had shown that it would be cheaper to repair the whole structure than had previously been anticipated and, secondly, the increased ridership of the line.<ref name=MR-1989/> British Rail estimated that revenue on the line was 40% higher than in 1988-89.<ref name=MR-1989/> Subsequently, British Rail started to repair the deteriorating tunnels and viaducts.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://archive.thisisbradford.co.uk/1999/4/10/164330.html |title=Long Battle to Save Settle – Carlisle Line Ends In Success |work=Telegraph & Argus |date=10 April 1999 |access-date=29 October 2008 |archive-date=22 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100822221933/http://archive.thisisbradford.co.uk/1999/4/10/164330.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Statue of Ruswarp ===
[[File:Ruswarp - geograph.org.uk - 1259798.jpg|thumb|Statue of Ruswarp at [[Garsdale railway station]]]]
In 2009, a statue of the [[border collie]] Ruswarp (pronounced Russup) was sited on the platform of the refurbished [[Garsdale railway station]].<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/cumbria/content/articles/2009/04/17/ruswarp_feature.shtml|title=Tribute to devoted dog unveiled|date=17 April 2009|work=BBC Cumbria|publisher=BBC|access-date=12 August 2009}}</ref> The commemorative sculpture, funded by public subscription, was made by sculptor [[Joel Walker (sculptor)|Joel Walker]] and cast in [[bronze]]. It celebrates the saving of the railway line which was coordinated by the Friends of the Settle to Carlisle Line, whose first secretary, Graham Nuttall, was a keen [[Hillwalking|hillwalker]]; his dog Ruswarp signed the petition to save the line with his paw print.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pendletoday.co.uk/nelsonnews/Statue-will-honour-hero-dog.3981396.jp|title=Statue will honour hero dog Ruswarp|date=15 April 2008|work=Pendle Today|publisher=Johnston Press Digital Publishing|access-date=12 August 2009|archive-date=5 December 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081205075336/http://www.pendletoday.co.uk/nelsonnews/Statue-will-honour-hero-dog.3981396.jp|url-status=dead}}</ref>  On 20 January 1990 Graham Nuttall had gone missing. He and Ruswarp had bought day return tickets from Burnley to [[Llandrindod Wells]] to go walking in the Welsh Mountains, but they never returned. Searches in the Elan Valley and [[Rhayader]] found nothing until on 7 April 1990, a lone walker found Nuttall's body beside a stream. The 14-year-old Ruswarp was nearby, having stayed by his master's body for 11 weeks in winter weather; he was so weak that he had to be carried down the mountain. His veterinary fees were paid by the [[RSPCA]], who awarded him their Animal Medallion and collar for 'vigilance' and Animal Plaque for 'intelligence and courage'. He died shortly after Nuttall's funeral.<ref name=":0" />