Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway - The Line in Fiction

The Line in Fiction

The Arlesdale Railway in The Railway Series by Rev. W. Awdry is based on the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway. In Small Railway Engines (1967), Awdry relates part of a holiday he spent visiting the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway with the Rev. E. R. Boston; the two appear in the book as the Thin Clergyman and the Fat Clergyman, respectively. The Arlesdale Railway was also the focus point in Jock the New Engine, with an incident that was inspired by an accident that happened on the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway, when Perkins crashed in the back of the shed, and with cameos in other books.

The fictional railway's locomotives are each based on Ravenglass engines: Bert, Rex, Mike and Jock are the steam engines River Irt, River Esk, River Mite and Northern Rock, while the Sudrian diesels Frank, Sigrid of Arlesdale and Blister 1 & 2 are the Cumbrians Perkins, Shelagh of Eskdale and Cyril. The Arlesdale Railway stations are also visibly based on the Ravenglass ones: Arlesburgh is Ravenglass, Ffarquhar Road is Muncaster Mill, Marthwaite is Irton Road, Arlesdale Green is Eskdale Green and Arlesdale is Dalegarth.

The line features in The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams; the canine protagonists evade the force of paratroopers searching for them by riding from Eskdale to Ravenglass on an empty train.