LMS pacific no. 6201 Princess Elizabeth crosses Ribblehead viaduct with the Cumbrian Mountain Express main line special on a very windy 9th May 2009. The Viaduct crosses the valley of the River Ribble, in North Yorkshire. It is the longest viaduct on the Settle-Carlisle line, which passes through some spectacular scenery. Located at the foot of the mountain of Whernside, it is 104 feet (32 m) high and spans 440 yards (402 m) with twenty-four arches. It took four years to build from 1870 to 1874 and was built by two thousand me. They established shanty towns on the moors, and named them after victories of the Crimean War, smart districts of London, and Biblical names. There were smallpox epidemics and many deaths from accidents. As a result, the local church cemetery had to be extended. British Rail tried to close the line in the 1980s, saying that the viaduct was unsafe and too expensive to repair. There were huge protests against the closure plans and BR eventually retracted them. The line across the viaduct was then singled to prevent two trains from crossing simultaneously. The viaduct, along with the rest of the line, is now maintained and there are no longer any plans to close it.
