How the S&C was saved
Part One: The Settle-Carlisle closure bid: the darkest days
How the Settle & C Former editor David Wilcock tells the story of the 72 mile route which narrowly avoided closure 20 years ago
I
t will go down as one of the darkest chapters in railway history - British Rail’s attempt in the 1980s to rid itself of the Settle & Carlisle line. What happened to the 72-mile Pennine line over the nine years 1981-89 - from demands for its closure to a complete reprieve - is a story of how determined campaigning from a handful of individuals managed to persuade a cost-conscious government to admit defeat and make a complete U-turn. It was 20 years ago, on April 11 1989, that the line we now regard as Britain’s most breathtaking, most exacting main line steam route was saved, in a surprise announcement from Under Secretary of State for Transport Michael Portillo. With its testing gradients, towering fells, tumbling becks and deep ravines, its plunging viaducts (22 of them) vast tunnels (another 12 of these) and rich Victorian history, the S & C - the last steam-worked XX | XXXXXX XX-XXXXXX XX 2009 Issue 3XX
artery of the BR era - was always a top target for the Steam Locomotive Operators Association (SLOA) and its post-1971 new generation of main line ‘specials’. On March 27 1978, nine years and 228 days after the Settle & Carlisle hosted BR’s ’15 Guinea Special’ farewell to steam, Gresley ‘V2’ No. 4771 Green Arrow heralded a famous comeback, working the CarlisleLeeds leg of ‘The Norfolkman’ - a ‘thank you’ tribute to former Norwich Shedmaster and steam disciple Bill Harvey, who had a key role in restoring the V2. There were more steam specials on the S & C in 1978, including the memorial trains for Bishop ‘Eric’ Treacy, with Nos. 92220 Evening Star and 4472 Flying Scotsman in September. And a new series of specials - ‘The Cumbrian Mountain Express’ - was planned for the line in 1979. However, with the collapse on March 17 1979 of Penmanshiel Tunnel (on the East Coast Main Line between Berwick and Dunbar), in which two workmen were killed, the S&C was procured for diversions, and the new ‘CME’ deferred until January 1980. It was against this background, with the Settle & Carlisle back in the consciousness of steam enthusiasts, that I learned from a contact in February 1981 that there
Carlisle was saved... were structural problems with the 24-arch Ribblehead Viaduct which carried the line across the valley near Chapel-le-Dale. I arranged to see London Midland Divisional Civil Engineer Alan King at his office in Preston to discover more. Talk of ‘hammer blow’ from steam locomotives affecting main line bridges and structures seemed to be a pet worry of the time, and I imagined a worst-case scenario in which several main line steam trips might be cancelled or postponed while repairs were carried out. I had no idea at that time that my questions to Alan King would lift the lid on ‘Pandora’s Box’. My report in the April 1981 launch edition of Steam World magazine described how the integrity of the stones of Ribblehead Viaduct was breaking down, and quoted King as saying: “Ribblehead Viaduct is rapidly coming to the end of its life; the degree of deterioration has accelerated rapidly in the last few years. Three years might see it through, five years or thereabouts would be the limit. We have spent £600,000 on Ribblehead since 1970, and what we have is a viaduct in far worse condition than when we started.” King wanted to repair, or preferably design a new Ribblehead Viaduct, and had produced drawings
Stanier ‘Mogul’ No. 2968 is captured in superb light at Ribblehead heading north with the ‘Christmas CME’ on December 21 1996. BOB GREEN
showing four different options. The cheapest of these was costed at £4.5 million - but he admitted that there was no budget for such expenditure. The portents didn’t look great, and I concluded in my report: ‘BR will say nothing at the moment, but it is reasonable to assume that refusal of funds for a new Ribblehead Viaduct will result in closure of the Settle & Carlisle as a through route. Its future can only be considered in a grave light.” It’s difficult to be certain whether BR London Midland Region, which had had a policy of only carrying out minimal maintenance on the Settle & Carlisle, had already set the clock ticking on closure plans, or whether the deteriorating condition of Ribblehead Viaduct would bring this further forward. The alarm bells had started to ring. The Steam World story was picked up by local and regional newspapers, and on June 27 1981 David Burton and Graham Nuttall, two enthusiastic users of the Dalesrail trains which took walkers and hikers into the fells, called a public meeting in Settle which led to the formation of the Friends of the Settle-Carlisle Line - the first of several groups determined to resist any closure of the line. Burton became FoSCL’s first chairman, and �� Issue 3XX XXXXXX XX-XXXXXX XX 2009 | XX