Settle & Carlisle Steam Special

Your journey begins in style with a welcome glass of sparkling bellini. Once settled into your plush armchair in our stylish dining carriages, a light brunch is served on route to Carnforth.

This is where we join the steam locomotiove for our mini day trip to Carlisle.

You will have time for a short leg stretch into Carlisle while the train resets for dinner and you can look forward to a delectable five course dinner served on the return.

We will have plenty of time to take photographs of the Steam engine in Carlisle station, have your picture taken infront of the loco and chat to the firemen and driver.

Highlight of the journey will be travelling over the famous Settle & Carlisle railway line during dinner.

The route, which crosses the remote, scenic regions of the Yorkshire Dales and the North Pennines, runs between Settle Junction, on the Leeds to Morecambe line, and Carlisle, near the English-Scottish borders

Admire the opulent interior design of your carriage, which evokes the 1930s “Belle” trains, each vintage carriage is decked out in luxurious details. Look around and discover plush fabrics and handcrafted murals.

INCLUDES

• Spectacular scenic journey by steam over the Settle & Carlisle line.
• Welcome sparkling Bellini reception
• Delightful brunch on the outward journey
• Morning tea and coffee
• Time to explore Carlisle at leisure / Photograph the Engine.
• Champagne reception back on board
• Sumptuous Five-course dinner: British seasonal table d’hote menu including an award winning cheese board
• Complimentary bottle of wine per couple
• Tea, coffee and petit fours.

THE JOURNEY

The Northern Belle will steam majestically off towards the spectacular 72-mile Settle-Carlisle line. Painstakingly hewn out of the North Pennine moors and Yorkshire Dales during the 1870s by an army of 6,000 navvies, this has been voted number two in a list of “The World’s 10 Greatest Train Journeys”.

“Past cotton-grass and moorland boulder, Shovelling white steam over her shoulder” (to quote W H Auden’s famous “Night Mail poem), we will race through picturesque Appleby before working hard to reach the top of Ais Gill (1,169ft, 356m). Then the Northern Belle drops down to Garsdale until eventually – “Snorting noisily as she passes, Silent miles of wind-bent grasses” – she steams into Settle.

On the way, we will have plunged through 14 tunnels, including the 1.5mile (2404m) long Blea Moor Tunnel, and crossed 22 viaducts, notably the magnificent 24-arch, quarter-mile (402m) long and 104ft (32m) high one at Ribblehead.

Finally after reaching the pretty little town of Hellifield, we head west through Blackburn and back to Preston. Our trip may be over, but we will have memories to last a lifetime.

The journey will be steam hauled from Carnforth - Carlisle - Settle - Preston.