Quarterly Magazine February 2021 No 163 JOURNAL Price £2.50 Inspecting the works! The Friends of the Settle - Carlisle Line FRIENDS OF THE SETTLE – CARLISLE LINE Settle Railway Station, Station Road, Settle, North Yorkshire BD24 9AA President: The Right Hon. Michael Portillo. Vice Presidents: Lord Inglewood DL; The Bishop of Carlisle; Edward Album; Olive Clarke, OBE, JP, DL; Ann Cryer; David Curry; Douglas Hodgins; Philip Johnston; Eric Martlew; Richard Morris; Mark Rand; Pete Shaw; Ken Shingleton; Brian Sutcliffe MBE; David Ward. Chairman: Paul Brown - [email protected] Committee: Edward Album (Legal Officer) [email protected] John Carey (Walks Co-ordinator & Integrated Transport Representative) [email protected] Allison Cosgrove (Vice Chair) allison.cosgrove@ settle-carlisle.com Joanne Crompton (Assistant Treasurer) [email protected] * John Ingham (Treasurer) [email protected] Paul Kampen (Secretary & Editor) [email protected] Ruth Evans (Volunteers Co-ordinator & Events Organiser) [email protected] Roger Hardingham (Trading Manager) [email protected] Paul Levet (Train Service Development) [email protected] Rod Metcalfe (On-train Guide Co-ordinator & Technology Adviser) [email protected] Richard Morris (Webmaster) [email protected] * Pete Myers [email protected] Martin Pearson [email protected] Pat Rand (Customer Relations Manager) [email protected] * * Indicates member co-opted after the 2020 AGM in accordance with the FoSCL constitution. Postal Addresses: Secretarial Enquiries, Hard Copy for the Magazine and General Postal Enquiries: Paul Kampen - 74 Springfield Road, Baildon, Shipley, W. Yorks BD17 5LX. Facebook @FriendsSettleCarlisle Twitter @foscl Enquiries about Volunteering: Ruth Evans - 49 Kings Mill Lane, Settle BD24 9FD or email as above. Telephone Enquiries about FoSCL Matters Only may be made to: Paul Kampen (07803 713636) or for Membership/FoSCL Dalescards 017683 53200 (answerphone). Other FoSCL Contacts: Media Enquiries: [email protected] Trading Enquiries including Settle and Appleby shops: [email protected] FoSCL website: www.foscl.org.uk Data Protection Officer John Barrow: [email protected] Membership/FoSCL Dalescards: [email protected] Ian Ambrose (Health and Safety Officer) [email protected] Joy Smith (Schools Liaison Co-ordinator): [email protected] Nigel Mussett (Historian): [email protected] Other Useful Contacts: Settle-Carlisle Website: www.settle-carlisle.co.uk Northern Rail: [email protected] or telephone: 0800 200 6060 Group Bookings: [email protected] Steam Train Running: www.railtourinfo.co.uk NEXT MAGAZINE: Copy date for the June 2021 magazine will be Saturday 22nd May. Views expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of the committee. You can email the magazine at: [email protected] . For electronic (PDF) copies of the magazine please contact the Editor. Past copies of the magazine may be seen at: www.foscl.org.uk ADVERTISEMENT RATES FOR THE MAGAZINE: Full Page = £75 + VAT. Half page = £45. + VAT Quarter Page = £30 + VAT. Four ads for the price of three if booked at the same time. All standard formats acceptable. MEMBERSHIP SUBSCRIPTIONS: Individual member: £10. Junior member: £3. Family member: £12.50. Corporate member: £40. Life member: £250. Joint Life membership: £350. Cover Picture: Ribblehead at night before lockdown. A walker surveys the preparations for the work to refurbish Ribblehead Viaduct which commenced the next day. 30th November 2020. Photo: Pete Collins/Diamond Skies - http://diamond-skies.co.uk Settle-Carlisle Railway Journal - Chairman’s Report Chairman’s Report FoSCL Chairman Paul Brown writes: Dear Members hope you have made the most of the Christmas and the Old Years night period. For some, 2020 will be the year to forget, for others a time to reflect and remember loved ones who Ihave passed away during this dreadful pandemic. It has pressed people both mentally and financially to extreme limits and we’re still not out of danger yet. The comforting thought is we’re not alone in this world-wide struggle, we are all in this together. This country’s NHS has worked tirelessly during these extreme conditions and continues to give its absolute commitment to caring and treating people to the best of its capability. I’d like to take this opportunity to personally thank all those members who have continued to support our work during this period and also those who have contributed to our Dent Station appeal fund. We’ve had a very good response so far but we still have some way to go before we reach our target. I draw your attention to an article from our Committee member, Martin Pearson, who is helping with the appeal. 2021 AGM: Looking forward to 2021, the Friends Committee have taken a bold, but I believe wise decision, to hold this year’s AGM on time in May (in fact 22nd May) and also by another virtual ZOOM on-line session. I, like the committee, much prefer to hold an actual meeting with our members but given the prolonged Covid19 conditions it’s been difficult to forecast what position we’ll be in and where the vaccination rollouts will be. Given the time constraints and in order to allow sufficient notice for such a meeting in accordance with the rules of the constitution we decided to err on the side of caution. After the conduct of formal business, we’ll have a guest speaker to look forward to so please have a look at your AGM notice within your magazine and book the date. Community Rail: Following on from the last magazine regarding matters related to our application for Community Rail Partnership, I draw your attention to an article on page 14 by Edward Album, our Committee member and legal adviser, about the various S&C organisations and the appointment of Community Rail partners. We have gained huge support and recognition from internal officers, transport groups, local town and parish councils and local MP’s across various constituencies. We are extremely grateful to all who have given that support and recognise that The Friends of Settle – Carlisle Line are the main community representatives of the line. We are happy to operate together with the Settle- Carlisle Development Company. Our business is to represent the line and its services as well as the communities. To that end we will engage with transport user groups, town and parish councils that rely on and support local economies. We will continue to concentrate on timetabling matters and service quality at the present and into the future but also look at the past, collating and recording the history. This includes talks and walks around the local areas. Importantly we will maintain our commitments to serve the line. Volunteers: To enable The Friends to finance our activities we depend on our volunteer workforce, to run our shops and future cafés, our walks, station adoption schemes and gardens, on train guides, workshop and our visitor centre signal boxes at both Armathwaite and Settle. There is also leaflet production and distribution. Do not forget, please, the committee role and functions, which is not only a once a month meeting but is often dealing with work, representing the Friends within other forums, and liaising with district, local and parish councils, transport user groups, other committees etc. When you actually step back and look at how much time is given by all our volunteers it’s absolutely astonishing and a great credit to all. 1 Settle-Carlisle Railway Journal - Chairman’s Report Appointment of Treasurer: I’m very pleased to report we have had a good response to our advertised vacancy for the position of Treasurer of the Friends when John Ingham leaves us at the next AGM. We have had a most impressive response from Joanne Crompton who has been temporarily co-opted on to the Committee. She is from Darwen, Lancashire, works as a self-employed accountant and is very passionate about heritage. She’s also somewhat active to say the least in various other roles both professionally and in a voluntary capacity: she fires steam locomotives on the East Lancs and Llangollen railways and is treasurer of the Bury Standard 4 group. She has been welcomed unanimously by the committee who will propose her as the next Treasurer and, if approved by our members, we are very much looking forward to working alongside her. After 34 years of dedicated service, Station adopter and gardener at Horton-in-Ribblesdale station, David Moss, has decided to retire. David, alongside his wife Brenda, have both been longstanding active members of the Friends. Brenda has hosted Ribblehead walks and historical talks but is more active these days in the Station Shop at Settle. I’m sure Horton hasn’t seen the last of David somehow. Hopefully, after lockdown restriction, he’ll be visiting from time to time just to appreciate the fantastic work he’s contributed and to keep in touch with the good team who continue to maintain the high standards of David’s efforts. The timetable and service quality group have been busy recently. The group have been putting together some suggestions: from monitoring essential commuter and school patterns with a view to recommending to Northern the services which are important to our communities and to keep the ones for those who need to travel to work by public transport. Members of this group also represent the Friends by attending local parish and town council meetings and transport user groups and meetings. The details are then deliberated before being presented as a summary to the Friends committee for approval. This helps to cut down on the overwhelming detail and time in committee meetings. The conclusion and approval of the committee then allows the members of the group to represent the Friends at Northern timetable formal meetings.