Best Train Trips in Britain

[John Ashworth]

1. Settle-Carlisle: the best ride in Britain

From The Sunday Times
March 1, 2009

The Settle-Carlisle line is a high-speed art gallery: there’s a new Turner landscape outside your window every minute

Stephen Bleach

What is it with British trains and urban blight? This is quite a pretty country, but you wouldn’t know it from many of our railways. Maybe it’s an accident of history, maybe it’s the work of evil planners, but our busiest lines seem to be carefully routed through the most godforsaken spots possible. If you’re reading this on a train, look out of the window: bet you it’s so grimy out there, you can hardly read the graffiti.

That’s because you’re on the wrong train. Away from the packed commuter routes and main intercities, the backwaters of our national network harbour some of the most beautiful rides in the world, and one in particular stands out.

I know, I know, nobody should get sentimental about railway lines — there’s a ring of M&S leisurewear and loneliness about it, and it seems to imply there isn’t enough going on in your life — but it’s not my fault. I challenge anyone with a soul to ride the Settle-Carlisle line and not fall in love.

They reckon it’s the most beautiful stretch of track in Britain. (You might argue that’s not surprising, the “they” in question being an organisation called the Friends of the Settle-Carlisle Line, but that misses the point — how many bits of the national rail network have a bunch of pals to cheer for them?) It isn’t a hobby line, run for fun by smut-covered enthusiasts.

This is an honest-to-goodness working railway, with bog-standard diesels going about their business, pulling commuters and coal trucks. They just happen to go through Britain’s most breathtakingly lovely country as they do so. If you’ve never been on the line, you’re missing out.

Coming from the south, you get on at Leeds. (Bit of a downer, but don’t worry; things get better.) Nab a window seat on the right for the best views later on. Your fellow passengers aren’t train nuts, but a normal bunch on ordinary errands. There was only one anorak in my carriage, and that was worn with hiking boots, which makes it okay.

Just a few minutes out into Airedale, the chain-link fences give way to dry-stone walls. (Well, dryish. It does rain a fair bit up here.) Past Shipley, Saltaire and Bingley, solid old mill towns still dominated by their solid old mills, you reach the real start of things at Settle, a jumble of sleepy stone nestling under high crags.

From here on up, you’re in the Yorkshire Dales National Park and, blimey, it’s lovely. Tracking the sparkling River Ribble along its lush green valley, you climb steadily out past the tree line onto the wide, high moors.

Up here, it’s all huge skies, rushing clouds, waving grass, constantly changing light. To the left, the peaks of Ingleborough and Whernside were frosted with snow on a cold, clear winter’s day. They’re splendid, but not in a flashy way: no ostentatious precipices or soaring summits for them, just noble contours and reassuring bulk. This is Yorkshire, and you don’t get above yourself, even if you’re a mountain.

Far off to the right, isolated stone farms huddle under the dark mass of Pen-y-Ghent. In our dreams, most city-dwellers fantasise about living somewhere as wildly beautiful as this, but in reality we’d have to eat our children before the first winter was out, so it’s probably just as well that we stick to the train, where it’s warm and dry, and the tea trolley is just coming round.

The country gets still wilder, higher and hillier. There’s a desolate beauty here, and an intangible air of menace too — you’re in the middle of overcrowded England, but every windblasted rock and tussock makes it clear this isn’t a landscape that people were meant to inhabit.

It strikes you that building a railway up here in the first place shows a level of ambition bordering on stupidity. (In fact, the Midland Railway tried to pull out when it realised how tough it would be, but parliament would not let it.)

Soon you cross the famous Ribblehead viaduct. Well, it’s famous among viaduct fans, anyway, who get rather exercised about the engineering of the thing, and trot out statistics at the drop of a pressure gauge, but you can’t see much of it when you’re going over, so don’t bother trying. Instead, look to your right, where the landscape is empty but for sheep and ghosts. There are plenty of both.

This bleak moor is Batty Green, and 140 years ago it was the closest thing Britain has ever had to a Wild West gold-rush town. For six years, 2,000 of the navvies who built this line lived here with their families in rough huts. Attracted by high wages (a stonking 10 shillings a week), they worked like dogs, drank like fish and fought like madmen.

One chucked dynamite into the makeshift pub “to see what would happen”. (Well, what do you know? It blew up.) Another sold his wife for a barrel of beer. They all rioted, regularly and with relish. The Midland Railway sent in missionaries to “civilise” them. As one history of the line notes: “None were eaten, as far as we know.”

It’s all gone now, just cloud shadows endlessly racing over the grey-green grass. In seconds you plunge into the 1½-mile Blea Moor tunnel, over Dent Head viaduct and . . . now’s the time to pull the communication cord.

To your left, Dentdale opens out beneath you. It’s a prospect of perfection, a northern Eden. The grass is a fresh, rich green. Limestone farm buildings are scattered just so down the steep, crooked valley under the slopes of Rise Hill. There’s not a tree or dry-stone wall out of place.

Even the cotton-wool sheep seem to have come from central casting. There’s a station here, the highest in England, so you can get off and explore it if you want to. I don’t. I want to believe a race of implausible Yorkshire pixies lives a life of happiness and contentment there, and I couldn’t cope with the disillusionment.

I could go on raving about the scenery all the way to Appleby, but there’s only so much of that you need. Suffice to say it’s a revelation, something like a high-speed art gallery: every minute, a new Turner canvas whizzes past your window.

After Appleby, the views go from the heart-stopping to the merely picturesque. Stay aboard if you’re in the mood, or hop off for a pint here before your return journey (I like the Hare and Hounds, a bog-standard but cute farmer’s pub on Boroughgate), and ponder this: in April, it’ll be 20 years since the line was reprieved. Yes, the old British Rail was on the brink of shutting down everything you’ve just come through, on “economic grounds”.

Yeah, right. It so happens that the line is busier than ever before (the coal freight alone takes 800 lorry loads a day, which would otherwise go by road), which puts paid to that argument. I suspect the BR bosses had a secret, more sinister motive: they couldn’t stand the Settle-Carlisle because it didn’t fit the corporate identity. A working railway that’s actually beautiful? Why, it’s just not British.

Travel brief: the slow train takes 2hr from Leeds to Appleby or 2hr 45min to Carlisle. Day returns cost £22.30/£27.80; a four-day Rover ticket is £44. For more information, visit settle-carlisle.org , where you can download a fact-packed commentary on the journey to your MP3 player.

In Leeds, the Malmaison (0113 398 1000, malmaison.co.uk ) is handy. It’s on Swinegate, not far from the station, with doubles from £99. In Carlisle, Warwick Lodge (01228 523796, warwick lodgecarlisle.co.uk) is a top-notch B&B, five minutes’ stroll from the train; doubles from £60.

If you want the train to be as historic as the line, Statesman Rail (0845 310 2458, statesmanrail.com ) will run steam-hauled trips on Wednesdays from July to September; from £59 return.

FOUR MORE BRITISH BEAUTIES

FORT WILLIAM TO MALLAIG

Naturally, the Highlands have more than their fair share of scenic railways, but this one takes the prize. From the moment you pull out past the ruins of Inverlochy Castle, you’re in for a treat: 84 miles of nonstop jaw-drop. Mountains, waterfalls, lochs and beaches: it’s film-set stuff.

There’s Glenfinnan Viaduct, which Harry Potter’s Hogwarts Express went chuffing across, and the white, almost Caribbean sands of Morar, as seen in Highlander and Local Hero. The climax has to be the stretch around Arisaig, with clear-day views right across to Rum, Eigg and Muck.

MIDDLESBROUGH TO WHITBY

Yes, it starts in Middlesbrough, which isn’t going to win a beauty contest any time soon. But that’s a good thing: it puts faint-hearts off the Esk Valley Railway, so there’s all the more room for the rest of us.

Industrial Teesside quickly fades away as the train chugs out across the North York Moors to isolated Battersby, where the driver has to walk the length of the train to change ends. (It’s a single-track Y-junction.) That done, you head on along the leafy valley through Danby, Egton and sugar-sweet Lealholm — surely the prettiest village in Yorkshire — before Whitby’s bracing sea air, fine Georgiana and looming gothic church. This is England’s green and pleasant land, writ large over 36 cute, rather than dramatic, miles: it might not make you gasp, but it will make you sigh.

Day returns cost £8.20 with Northern Rail (northernrail.org )

EXETER TO NEWTON ABBOT

Lush farmland, the wide Exe estuary, Powderham Castle and the thrill of riding only a few feet from the crashing waves at Dawlish sea wall; it’s the most scenic route in the south. For much of the way the train weaves along the coast, clinging to a narrow strip of line hemmed in by the spectacular red cliffs on one side and the surf on the other. (Make sure you’re sitting on the left if you’re heading west.)

Expresses from London thunder through the many tunnels, but they eat up the 20 miles all too quickly. Instead, take the local and hop off for tea, a tipple or to twiddle your toes in the sand at Dawlish — the station’s bang on the beach.

Off-peak day returns are £4.30 with First Great Western (firstgreatwestern.co.uk )

LLANDUDNO TO BLAENAU FFESTINIOG

North Wales is crammed with heritage railways that take steam trains chuffing along reclaimed lines, and some are pretty spectacular. We’re sticking to the national grid, though, and we reckon this stretch along the Conwy Valley Railway, built to take slate from mountain quarries to the coast, can go head to head with the best.

It’s the variety of the landscape in the 27 miles that marks it out. You begin with wide estuary and marshland bird reserves at Llandudno, then pass medieval castles and Iron Age hill forts, wooded hillsides, surging cataracts, open moorland, high peaks and crags. The final drama comes with the otherworldly man-made mountains of slate waste at Blaenau, which have a doomy grandeur all of their own. It’s a revelation.

Day returns cost £6.60 with Arriva (www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk )

2. 10 best train trips in Britain

From The Sunday Times
March 1, 2009

Pistons chuffing, funnels puffing - heritage railways make a family day out. Here’s our pick of the best
Golden Arrow which will be featuring in the BlueBell Line in East Grinstead.

Stephen Bleach

Nostalgia’s a funny thing: you don’t have to have lived through an era to remember it fondly. Nobody under 50 was around when steam trains were common in Britain, but the appeal lives on — hundreds of thousands of children are besotted with Thomas the Tank Engine, and an equal number of volunteers (of all ages) keep more than 100 heritage steam railways running up and down the country.

Yes, more than 100. When Beeching savaged the railway network in 1963, he could hardly have foreseen that an army of enthusiasts would rise up and set about reopening chunks of it simply for fun.

It’s our good luck they have, as a heritage railway makes a great day out, especially for children — even if some grown-ups claim to be immune to the thrill of steam, kids love it. Here’s our pick of Britain’s most rewarding steam journeys.

Most lines are run by volunteers and don’t operate every day, so check ahead. Quoted fares are return, for the full length of the line — shorter journeys may be cheaper

ISLE OF MULL

Perhaps the cutest line in Britain: little engines pull tiny carriages just a mile and a quarter from Craignure to Torosay Castle, with gorgeous views to Glencoe and Ben Cruachan. 01680 812494, mullrail.co.uk ; from April 1; £4.50, children £3

NORTH NORFOLK

Give it a month to see bluebells, primroses and gorse wafted by the full-size engines as they chug the 10-mile round trip between Sheringham and Georgian Holt. It’s child-friendly, too, with a stationary activity carriage and family events. 01263 820800, www.nnrailway.co.uk ; £10.50/£7

BO’NESS AND KINNEIL

From the Firth of Forth, the Bo’ness steams through woods to Birkhill, where an old fire-clay mine now does guided tours; chuck on your hard hat and look out for 300m-year-old fossils. 01506 822298, www.srps.org.uk ; from April 4; £6/£3

KEIGHLEY AND WORTH VALLEY

Famous as the location for The Railway Children, it has buckets of charm. For bookworms, the Brontë parsonage is a stroll from the station at Haworth. 01535 645214, kwvr.co.uk ; £14/£7

SNOWDON

Half train ride, half mountaineering — a spectacular rack-and-pinion haul up Wales’s highest mountain. Pricey but thrilling. 0871 720 0033, snowdonrailway.co.uk ; £23/£16 (or £16/£13 if you walk back down)

KIRKLEES

Designed with kids in mind: small trains, a 50-minute return trip, neat, train-themed playgrounds at either end, picnic areas, a bouncy castle in season and a tiny sit-upon train for quick trips round the pond. 01484 865727, kirkleeslightrailway.com ; £6.50/£4.50

PAIGNTON AND DARTMOUTH

Twice the fun: from Dartmouth, take the ferry over the river to Kingswear, then the train over the hills to Paignton. The clifftop views over Torbay are terrific. 01803 553760, pdsr.co.uk; combined ticket £11/£6.50

SEVERN VALLEY

Older children will appreciate the splendid engine collection and the full-size, 16-mile steam run. All ages will love the 1940s weekends, nostalgia fests with Home Guard platoons, wailing sirens and vintage outfits — so authentic, they even put spivs on the trains. 01299 403816, svr.co.uk ; returns £17/£9, 1940s days £20/£10

RAVENGLASS AND ESKDALE

Pint-sized puffers pull the seven miles from the coast to Boot. Adults get the stunning scenery, children get the fun of the hissing mini-engines, as well as Roman history days and Peter Rabbit and Postman Pat specials. 01229 717171, ravenglass-railway.co.uk ; £10.80/£5.40

BLUEBELL RAILWAY

Lovingly preserved, wonderfully atmospheric and family-friendly (with two clubs for kids). Dinner (book ahead) amid the plush and panels of the Pullman car is an absolute treat. 01825 720800, bluebell-railway.co.uk ; £12/£6

Here's Thomas...

For under-fives, only one engine counts. For heritage railways that hold Thomas the Tank Engine days, visit thomasandfriends.com .