Tracking Down 3: The Settle & Carlisle Railway in the 1980s

Tracking Down 3: The Settle & Carlisle Railway in the 1980s

The Settle & Carlisle line gained national attention on 11 August 1968 when the Fifteen Guinea Special marked the end of British Rail steam. Roads near Ribblehead, Dent, and Ais Gill were clogged with the cars of photographers capturing the event. Fifteen years later, the line faced closure and the cameras were back. British Rail had made services deliberately inconvenient to deter passengers – a tactic noted in Hansard and described by Sir Hector Monro as “ruddy chaos.”

Craig and I, often with our friend Neil in his Renault 5, were determined to document this engineering marvel before it vanished, photographing the line’s dramatic Pennine setting and dwindling traffic. Thankfully, public pressure prevailed. The Settle & Carlisle was saved and thrives today – a far cry from the 1980s. As MP Robert Adley said, “In its way, Ribblehead is as significant as Ingleborough, which God provided for this nation.”



Hardback, 80 pages, black & white photographs