The Green Arrow

While I was on my trip to England back in 2006, I decided to take a trip up to Ribblehead and see the viaduct there. Ribblehead is on the Settle and Carlisle line and cuts through the heart of the Yorkshire Dales. The Dales are a stark and windswept place that has marvelous views and seems to be inhabited mainly by sheep. Like the desert, it is the kind of place where you can see for miles in many directions and still be quite alone.

I hiked alongside railway tracks up to a tunnel north of the station and caught a DMU emerging from the portal heading south. Before I got there, I ran into a kindly man from Scotland and got to chatting with him. He asked me where I was coming from and going to. I said I was thinking of getting back on a train and heading to Carlisle. He said that if I went back to York, there would be a steam-hauled passenger train leaving the station in the morning. I thanked him and began to mull my options.

I decided to head back to York and then next morning I went down to the station. York station has a large train shed arching over its platforms and just walking through it seems to be traveling back in time. As I watched the DMU's, the GNER and Virgin train sets move in and out of the platform, I wondered if he had been right. I soon saw a group of men with cameras gathering at the end of one of the platforms and others with small children on their shoulders and I knew I was in the right place. In a few minutes the whistle blew and the Green Arrow, a former LNER 2-6-2 came into the station hauling a string of vintage passenger cars. I can't remember the price of taking a trip on this train, but I do remember it was quite expensive. I wasn't really interested anyway because you can't photograph a train when you are on it.

I found out later that the British were running steam passenger excursions on the mainline Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays. I didn't stick around for another day and I have always regretted that. Instead, I jumped on a train and headed off across England. I landed that night in Leamington Spa, which is about 141 miles away. But in a country with a pretty decent rail network you can do that.