ELittle

Published at 01:00, Saturday, 16 June 2007

IN reply to JA Pallister (News & Star, June 12), Carlisle civil engineer Cedric Martindale made the proposal to restore the Penrith toKeswick railway after surveying the entire route.

He has had support from some local councils, although not much from Eden District Council, who have allowed the track bed to be built on at Blencowe.

If Mr Martindale gets the support he needs, including financial, this scheme could come to fruition.

Passenger traffic on the line ceased in 1972, but it should never have been approved for closure, given the position of Keswick as a leading holiday centre.

The Keswick-Workington section, closed to passengers in 1966, was not so well patronised in its later years, but the eastern section didn’t do so bad.

Many of the bridge structures are still in place, such as several bow-string girder bridges between Keswick and Threlkeld over the rivers Greta and Glenderamackin; also the large Walthwaite (or Mosedale) viaduct, near Troutbeck, and Penruddock viaduct.

I have a lot of sympathy for Cedric Martindale and wish his scheme well.

JOHN NM CHARTERS

Plumbland

Aspatria

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk