Nothern Rock at Ravenglass

Northern Rock was built at Ravenglass The boiler was the last ever made by the
Hunslet Engine Company in Leeds, but virtually every other component came to Ravenglass as a piece of flat steel plate, or a rough raw casting, to be machined to size and fitted in the railway’s own workshops. The work took Chief Engineer Ian Smith and his assistants, David Clay and Ian Page, three years from 1973 and when they lit the very first fire in her boiler, she raised steam and was taken up the line without further adjustments

The Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway is one of the oldest and longest narrow gauge railways in England, known affectionately as La’al Ratty meaning “ little railway “ in olde Cumbrian dialect. It was 104 years ago in April 1913 that the original 3ft line closed and in 1915 the new 15in La’al Ratty was born. The heritage steam engines transport passengers from Ravenglass, the only coastal village in the Lake District National Park and of huge significance in Roman times, being an important last defence point of the infamous Hadrians Wall, to Dalegarth for Boot some 210ft above sea level. There are turntables at either end of the line, one of which can be seen here and the other in the PiPs.
The journey takes 40 minutes, through beautiful scenery, up the line from the protected nature reserves of the Ravenglass Estuary through ancient woodlands to the fells of the Eskdale Valley. We enjoyed every minute of our trip there and back, with a stop for coffee at Dalegarth.

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