Eden Valley Railway

The Eden Valley Railway is a standard-gauge heritage line based at Warcop in Cumbria, in the heart of the Eden valley between the Lake District and the Pennines, on a preserved section of the former North Eastern Railway Eden Valley line from Kirkby Stephen to Penrith — a route through some of the most remote and spectacular upland countryside in northern England.

The line's survival was helped by an unusual circumstance: after passenger closure in 1962 the trackbed remained in use as a Ministry of Defence siding serving the Warcop military training area, which meant that the track was not lifted and the infrastructure survived largely intact. The Eden Valley Railway Society was formed in 1995 and the first preserved services ran in 2006, operating over a demonstration section at Warcop with long-term ambitions to extend along the surviving alignment.

The railway's remote Cumbrian setting gives it a character shared with the Stainmore Railway at Kirkby Stephen — both preserving elements of the former NER cross-Pennine route across the high moorland of Stainmore and the Eden valley that was one of the most dramatic railway journeys in northern England. The surrounding landscape of the Eden valley, with the Pennines to the east and the Lake District fells to the west, makes Warcop an attractive destination in its own right.