I was Station Master at Dent from March 1952 to September 1955, and I thought it would be of interest to set down my recollections of that time. I am relying chiefly on my fallible memories of events fifty-five years ago, so I apologise now for any errors.
I was in charge of the station itself, and two signal boxes: Dent Station Box and Dent Head Box. Dent is on the Settle-Carlisle line, built by the Midland Railway in the 1870s to provide its own route to Carlisle and Scotland. With the west and east coast routes already occupied by competitors, the Midland took the rugged backbone of England as its only alternative. Its surveyors managed to limit the gradients to 1 in a 100, but this involved deep cuttings, massive viaducts and long tunnels. The line at Dent ran along a shelf on the eastern side of upper Dentdale, between mile-and-a-half Blea Moor Tunnel to the south and three-quarter-mile Rise Hill Tunnel to the north, with major viaducts at Dent Head and Artengill to bridge side valleys.
Dent Station has the reputation of being the highest main-line station in England, at 1145 feet above sea level. The reputation is qualified: by main line - Princetown, terminus of a branch line in Devon was considerably higher at almost 1373 feet; and by England because the main line station at Dalwhinnie on the Perth-Inverness line was higher at 1188 feet.
