READERS may be aware of the preserved signal box adjacent to the Leeds bound platform at Settle Station.

This was moved to its present location during 1997 and renovated over the following two years by a band of eight volunteers to a high standard prior to regularly opening to the public on a Saturday.

Many local people will remember Derek Soames who worked on the railway for 50 years mainly as a signalman. He was one of that magnificent band which carried out the restoration.

My involvement goes back some 15 years though I have been a volunteer with the Friends of Settle Carlisle Line (FoSCL) for much longer. I was one of the many thousands, plus a fair-paying dog (Ruswarp), who penned and pawed their objections (Ruswarp's paw print was on the petition) to the proposal during the 1980s to close the Settle Carlisle Railway. The rest is history.

I have been a volunteer now for well over 30 years, initially at Hellifield Station way before its renovation during 1994. A gang of like-minded individuals set to sprucing up the outside paintwork. later when the cafe area opened we helped to maintain this, repainting the inside twice. Quite a job.

Over the past 15 years two of that early band have been joined at Settle Station signal box by new recruits, some with railway experience and skills. Malcolm Sissons and Ged Pinder led magnificent renovations and enhancements. The signal box has been extensively refurbished with new signalling, a point, detonator machine and can replicate what happens in the remaining nine operational boxes operating this line from Hellifield almost to Carlisle.

So what has gone wrong?

Early last year long-term FoSCL volunteer Ruth Evans, who did so much to promote the line, passed away after a long battle with cancer. She was a wonderful lady who really knew how to look after volunteers.

Since then the committee has taken on an entirely different look - 'regime' would be a more appropriate description. Volunteers are subject to a drip-fed diet of diktats and diatribes. Some have left, so too have some of the committee including Roger Hardingham who was the instigator of saving the Settle Station signal box all those years ago.

You do not tell volunteers what to do, you ask them. And if you have any sense - clearly lacking in this case - you ask them very nicely indeed when you may get a favourable response. Volunteers are becoming nationally as scarce as hens' teeth.

So, after all these years I have withdrawn my time, labour and expertise and left FoSCL. I have not taken this action lightly but enough is enough (in reference to the manner in which volunteers are being treated). I am by no means the only one to pack up.

Finally, while there are several who share my sentiments, what you have just read are my words and mine alone.

Bob Swallow

Settle

Editor's note: The FoSCL was asked for a comment. Its chair Allison Cosgrove said: "I was aware that Mr Swallow was standing down. He has given many years of service to the line, for which we are all very grateful."