‘N’ gauge offers the potential for a really expansive layout, and WAYNE WEBB, TONY FRAZER and BOB TAYLOR have exploited its potential to brilliant effect in their impressive Settle and Carlisle railway layout. Photography, Trevor Jones.
WE MET while operating our club's ‘N’ gauge layout, which had been completed by others before we joined. The idea of building our own exhibition layout inspired by the high moorland sections of the Settle and Carlisle railway appealed to us, and with a little help from Google Earth, we rapidly put together an outline plan for a layout based in Dentdale. Our plan features Dent station, Arten Gill and Dent Head viaducts, with the scenic section starting at the Coal Road Bridge on the left, and the north entrance to the 1 1/2mile long Blea Moor Tunnel on the right.
The Settle and Carlisle line is one of the last great Victorian main lines in Britain, taking four years to build, with 6,000 navvies building 20 viaducts, 14 tunnels and numerous access bridges to give the Midland Railway its own access to Scotland. The line was threatened with closure in the early 1980s but was saved after a massive campaign and has sin…
