Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent unused condition. Images are beautiful bright and vivid. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> John Ruskin looking at Ingleborough on a windy day wondered how the mou tain managed to stand without rocking. A similar thought came into my mind I parked my car near Ribblehead Viaduct. The car rocked. The viaduct stood fir as yet another storm from the west advanced up Chapel-le-Dale stirring the a until the wind moaned between the high arches. It was like listening to part of th sound-track of a Bronte film. The late Bishop Treacy who suffered badly from Settle-Carlislitis consic ered that the three greatest North Country wonders were York Minister Hadrian’ Wall and the Settle-Carlisle railway. He occasionally rode on footplates doubt less ducking if there was a wind roaring over Ribblehead Viaduct. Someone described Ribblehead Viaduct as “like a Victorian cobweb stretched across the head of the dale”. Seen from a distance the graceful lines of the 24-arch viaduct give little indication of its bulk. See the viaduct reflected in a puddle on the track leading to it from near the Station Inn and the gigantic structure appears to be floating in space. It is a different matter when you stand close by it with the ponderous verticals of dressed limestone near at hand and a wind passing between the arches like the “wuthering” wind used on the sound track of a Bronte film. John Crossley Engineer-in-Chief for the Midland Railway took a great interest in the design of Settle-Carlisle viaducts. Some idea of Victorian confidence is to be seen in their relative slender forms. The Midland Railway began work on the Settle-Carlisle Railway when a sod was cut at Anley near Settle in the November of 1869. Constructing the line demanded the greatest engineering skill that had been shown in the land. The men who built the line had to have extreme physical endurance. Some of the workmen employed building railways in far-off lands found Ribblehead to be one of the wildest windiest spots in the world. The line was opened for passenger traffic on 1 May 1856. (SP)