Back in business

Today was a big day for the Settle/Carlisle Railway, or at least our bit of it. The day the first trains for 13 months pulled out of Appleby Station and headed for Carlisle. Until now the line has been closed around Armathwaite because of a huge landslip caused by flooding. A massive repair job has been carried out and this was the day to celebrate the reopening of that bit of the line.

For the celebration, the Flying Scotsman made a return trip from Oxenhope to Carlisle and it brought enthusiasts and local people out in their hundreds to watch the steam go by.

We were at Appleby Station this morning to see it come in and then returned this afternoon to watch it go out again. Lots of people, a lovely atmosphere, loads of photos.

But in the end I decided I liked best our local view of it – the viaduct at Long Marton, a few minutes from home. We were the only ones watching from our spot (although look carefully at the bottom left hand corner of the picture) and this felt like a more personal picture for the record. 

In extras see the engine as it was building up steam ready to set out from Appleby.