Ribblehead sunset as 61306 and 35018 cross Ribblehead viaduct on February 2, 2019

I make no apology for a bias towards the Settle & Carlisle line. On April 6, 1984, I arrived home from school to be told that my dad had secretly booked both of us on to a special from Norwich, over the S&C, to Carlisle, and we would be leaving very early the following morning.

This was a huge surprise. The S&C line was under threat of closure at the time and, I think it would be fair to say, many tours were run in anticipation of this. Our trip, for us, was a unique event and pivotal in feeding my obsession with railway photography.

Our usual haunts would be the comparative ‘lowlands’ of King’s Lynn, Norwich, March and Peterborough, but this was in a different league!

Other than Carlisle, the only other planned stop was at Appleby and, yes, we did take time to honour the memorial plaque to the great Bishop Eric Treacy!

More than 30 years later, I am fortunate to live about an hour from the Ribblehead to Garsdale section and spend as much time there as I can get away with.

This image recalls a fantastic day out with my canine assistant. Despite the huge risk of shooting into a high sun, I put all of my eggs into one basket and went for it.

Using my best lens quality-wise, a 50mm prime, the plan was to take a position far enough away to include the full span of the viaduct – which happened to be among these snow-covered limestone scars. Thankfully the train was running late, which allowed the sun to set a little bit more, so the soft piece of lens flare could have been worse. The flare can be interpreted to add or detract from the overall perception of the image; I fully accept both standpoints.

61306 Mayflower and 35018 British India Line cross Ribblehead viaduct with the 1Z87 Carlisle to Euston return leg of the ‘Winter Cumbrian Mountain Express’.

This is the only railway print we have on our walls at home and I admit to fluctuating between both views captured that day myself from day to day!