The line and its numbers
The route runs 72 miles between Settle in Yorkshire and Carlisle, and has done since 1876, following the natural pathways through the Pennine hills (historic-uk, read 4 September 2026). It was built by the Midland Railway as its own route connecting its east and west coast lines, in fierce competition with the other companies - a rivalry that produced one of the great pieces of Victorian engineering anywhere in Britain.
Ribblehead
The viaduct is the reason most people come. Twenty-four stone arches, 104 feet above the moor (Yorkshire Dales National Park). The construction camps below it were shanty towns with names: Batty Wife Hole, Sebastopol, Belgravia. The National Park does not soften what building it cost, recording that “hundreds of railway builders (‘navvies’) lost their lives building the line, from a combination of accidents, fights, and smallpox outbreaks”, and that the railway paid to expand the local graveyard. The memorials are at St Leonard’s in Chapel-le-Dale and St Mary’s at Outhgill, and they are worth the detour before you photograph the arches. On a clear day the sight of a train - steam charter or scheduled service - crossing the arches against the fells is the photograph the line exists for, and on gala days the queues of tripods tell you where to stand. Our preparation guide covers what such a photograph needs to carry a print.
The line that was nearly closed
The reason this route still carries trains is that the closure proposal of the 1980s failed. Michael Portillo, then Minister of State for Transport, describes signing it off himself: “In April 1989, I wrote to the Friends of the Settle-Carlisle Line, announcing that the proposed closure of the Settle-Carlisle Railway Line would not take place, and the line was reprieved” (the Settle Carlisle Railway Trust). Every photograph anyone takes at Ribblehead now exists because of a letter written in 1989.
2026 is the line’s 150th anniversary: a century and a half since the first passenger train ran in 1876.
Doing it properly
The line rewards the slow version: ride the whole route once, then come back and break the journey at the intermediate stations - the ones with the walks from them are the ones people return to. Check the operator's timetable before travelling; services are fewer than on main lines, which is part of the point. For the full context the historic-uk guide is a good read.
The photograph afterwards
The Settle to Carlisle gives you landscape photographs with a railway in them, which is the same brief the railway poster tradition worked to. A photograph of Ribblehead repainted in the western landscape manner - or printed exactly as it is - ends the day properly.
Written by Craig Fearn, Trackside Prints. Last updated .
