The Men Who Built the Settle to Carlisle Railway

The Men Who Built the Settle to Carlisle Railway by David Occomore.

The Settle and Carlisle Railway was constructed 30 years after the Lancaster and Carlisle. One aspect that is evident is how little railway construction had changed. Picks and shovels, with horses to pull wagons were still very much the order of the day.

The Settle and Carlisle Railway was built to a main line standard for fast express trains and considering the terrain, succeeded to a larger extent in its brief. John Crossley used large engineering works, tunnels, viaducts and embankments of some considerable scale to provide better gradients. But who were the engineers, contractors and navvies responsible for building the railway? 

Using newspapers and books written at the time of the lines construction, David Occomore delves into the key players and navvies who turned a sparsely populated part of the country into the upheaval of the coming of hundreds of workers. This book is highly recommended.

The Settle to Carlisle celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2026.

Introduction
The Engineers and Contractors
Sub-Contractors
The Navvy
The Irish Navvy
The Construction of the Line
Viaducts, Cuttings, Embankments & Tunnels
The Navvy Census
The Line is Completed