Big Cut

We were on another of our walks from Kirkby Stephen and today some friends joined us. A great 5 mile walk, which had more stiles than we can remember on any other walk. But it was a fine, warm day, although the mist never did really disappear.

A mile or so of the walk was along the track bed of the old Tebay to Stainmore Railway. We were heading north towards Rookby Scarth and the railway was gradually climbing. We were surprised just how high it became. Halfway along we found ourselves in a large cutting and this is it. You can just see the narrow path we were following. We had huge walls on either side of us. This cutting was known as the ‘Big Cut’ and you can see why. It is hard to imagine all this rock and soil being moved mainly by men with shovels. Apparently when the railway was first built this was a single line and the width at the bottom was only 12 feet. Then in the 1890s it was widened.

This bit had a terrible reputation for getting snowbound in the winter. Trains could disappear under deep drifts. Here are some photographs of such events. The centre one took place on this bit of the line.

On the way home we met this. We regularly have cow jams and sheep jams, but . . . !