20 best climbs

Richard Foster picks 20 spectacular sections where locomotives do battle against gravity.

THE ‘LONG DRAG’ Max. gradient 1-in-100

The Settle & Carlisle’s vital statistics are impressive. It has 21 viaducts, 14 tunnels and a ruling grade of 1-in-100 over much of the line. Yet the railway has a darker side: over 200 men were killed during its construction, the ‘Long Drag’, from Settle to the summit at Ais Gill, took a heavy toll on engines and crew, and the job of signalman at Blea Moor - a mile or so from the nearest road - has to be one of the most unenviable on the railways. In a sense, this is a line that should never have been built: it was only the Midland Railway’s desperation to have its own route from London to Scotland that forced the construction of a railway here. But the S&C forces you to appreciate the physical effort that went into building a Victorian railway. The navvies’ pickaxes must have seemed like toothpicks against the vast grandeur of the moors.

CHRIS NEVARD Allen Pearson’s superb ‘N’ gauge re-creation of Ribblehead. Sadly, the only way to enjoy this layout is to track down a copy of the April 2015 issue of Model Rail - the layout was damaged beyond repair after a tree fell on Allen’s model railway room....