Trainspotters flock to witness the Flying Scotsman travel along the reopened Settle-Carlisle line
The famous locomotive travelled along a line that was severed in 2016 when half a million tonnes of earth gave way under the tracks
HUNDREDS of train fans have flocked to the edge of one of the UK's most scenic rail routes today, to witness the Flying Scotsman in action.
The famous locomotive is marking the reopening of the Settle-Carlisle line, which was severed in Cumbria in February 2016, when half a million tonnes of earth gave way under the tracks after weeks of heavy rain.
Full services resumed today, following engineering work costing £23 million.
The first Northern service departed Carlisle at 5.50am, with the Flying Scotsman making a special trip to the city at 1.05pm.
The route provides a lifeline to thousands of small businesses and is also a magnet for rail enthusiasts.
Network Rail, which was set up in 2002 to maintain and enhance railway infrastructure, said the scale and remote location of the repair work made it the most challenging in its history.
The 72-mile route takes passengers through the ruggedly beautiful countryside of the Yorkshire Dales and the Eden Valley, and includes the Ribblehead Viaduct, which is 104ft high and has 24 arches.
A section of the line was shut on February 9 last year at Eden Brows, near Armathwaite village, south of Carlisle, after aerial surveillance and track monitoring teams detected the ground slipping beneath the railway towards the River Eden 70 metres below.
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Over the following weeks, the track subsided one and a half metres.
The repair project involved hundreds of steel tubes filled with concrete being set into the hillside to form a corridor on which a 100-metre long concrete slab was placed, giving the railway a solid base.
The Flying Scotsman has been hired for the day by the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway to run from Oxenhope to Carlisle to celebrate the reopening of the line.
This locomotive was originally built in Doncaster for the London and North Eastern Railway, emerging from the works on 24 February 1923.
While traditionally the train ran between London and Edinburgh, it now runs just special chartered trips every year, much to the excitement of rail enthusiasts.
The Edinburgh to London line was initially known as the Special Scotch Express from its conception in 1862, although many referred to it unofficially as the Flying Scotsman from the 1880s.
With the introduction of this new train in 1923, it became known officially as The Flying Scotsman.
While the train service was always seen as luxury travel, a series of modernisations on this locomotive transformed the service, including an electric kitchen, heating in the carriages, a barber's and new dining cars.
In 1934, Scotsman was clocked at 100mph on a special test run – officially the first locomotive in the UK to have reached that speed.