THE Flying Scotsman will be among the first locomotives to travel on the reopened Settle-Carlisle Railway when the route welcomes its first customers after more than a year of repairs.

Tomorrow (March 31) the iconic line will reopen to travellers after it was closed last February when a landslip was detected at Eden Brows, near Armathwaite, south of Carlisle.

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Network Rail's aerial surveillance and track monitoring teams detected the ground slipping beneath the railway towards the River Eden 70 metres below.

Over the next several weeks a 100-metre section of track subsided 1.5 metres. The last train passed through to Carlisle in February last year. Since then, there has been a replacement bus service operating at the northern end of the line.

The size and scale of the repair job coupled with the difficult-to-access location and the fact the ground was still on the move made this the biggest repair challenging Network Rail has ever faced.

After careful deliberation engineers chose a piling solution: two rows of high-strength piles - steel tubes filled with concrete - driven into the sloping bedrock, forming a corridor upon which a one metre-thick, 100 metre-long concrete shelf has been placed.

The magnitude of the task for engineers, who had to operate on a 70m, still-slipping embankment, was huge. Teams had to clear the slope of vegetation; remove 16,000 tonnes of spoil from the site; lay four kilometres worth of steel-cased piles; pour 1,300 cubic metres of concrete; install new walls and drainage; and lay 6,000 tonnes of stone and 3,000 tonnes of ballast.

Paul Barnfield, regional director for Northern, said: “The Eden Brows engineering project has been a mammoth task for Network Rail and we are delighted to once again be able to offer a direct train service between Settle and Carlisle."

Martin Frobisher, managing director of Network Rail’s London North Western route, added: “I am beyond thrilled that customers and goods are moving again on this vital economic artery through Britain’s most beautiful landscape. Our orange army has ensured that even if the ground gives way again in future, the railway will not.”

Douglas Hodgins, chairman of the Friends of Settle Carlisle Line, said he was eagerly anticipating the reopening and was looking forward to seeing the famed route regain its iconic status.

“It is great to be back in business," he said, "we shall be working tirelessly with the railway industry to ensure the line regains its role as a through route to Carlisle and Scotland as quickly as possible - and to seeing the splendours of the Eden Gorge from the trains again. Well done Network Rail and its contractors.”

The Flying Scotsman's one-off chartered trip to Carlisle from Keighley via Settle, Appleby and Armathwaite, arriving into Carlisle, will be the highlight of the day, but it will not be first voyage made. The first train to cross the newly-restored line will the Northern service out of Carlisle at 5.50am.