Settle-Carlisle Railway

The line from Settle to Carlisle is one of the world's great rail journeys. It carves its way through the magnificent landscape of the Yorkshire Dales - where it becomes the highest main line in England - descending to Cumbria's lush green Eden Valley with its view of the Pennines and Lakeland fells. But the story of the line is even more enthralling. From its earliest history the line fostered controversy: it probably should never have been built, arising from a political dispute between two of the largest and most powerful railway companies in the 1860s. Its construction, through some of the most wild and inhospitable terrain in England, was a Herculean task. Tragic accidents affected those who built, worked and travelled the line. This book describes the history behind the inception and creation of the line; the challenges of constructing the 72-mile railway and its 17 viaducts and 14 tunnels; threat of closure in the mid-1980s and the campaign to save it, and finally, the line today and its future.