SETTLE TO CARLISLE RAILWAY
(Mike Donald)

In the year of '69 they planned to run a train
From Settle to Carlisle, all across the mountain range
They employed 3000 navvies to build this mighty road
And across the fells through Appleby that old steam engine rolled

Chorus:
And it's up in the morning, lads
In wind, snow and hail
Hold fast to your hammers, lads
And lay another rail

It's 72 miles from Settle to Carlisle
Across the roughest country, boys, in the British Isles
They said it would take 4 years, but it took 'em nearer seven
And the first 20 miles sent 400 men to heaven

Repeat chorus

They set up shanty towns to protect them from the cold
Inkerman, Sebastopol and Batty Wife Hole
And when they tired of women and the drinking of strong beer
They fought bare-fist style and they came from far and near

Repeat chorus

And when the winter came, it froze them to the floor
It blew them off the viaducts and it killed them on Blea Moor
Some died of the smallpox, and some of cholera
Old Chapel and St Leonards has many buried there

Repeat chorus

So if you ride this famous line across those heathered fells
When crossing Ribblehead viaduct remember the tale I tell
There's Mallerstang and Aisgill and Dentdale's lovely wilds
And navvy lads a-slavin' from Settle to Carlisle

Repeat chorus

"The music is written and sung by Mike Donald of Skipton - recorded on an album - Yorkshire - Songs of the Broad Acres, in 1971."
Settle-Carlisle run 1984 on YouTube

I remember this song from a TV programme about the Settle- Carlisle line made by Mike Harding in about 1989 which I videotaped.
My 2yr old son was mad on trains and we played the video to destruction :)