At Settle Junction, the Midland Railway Company's Settle & Carlisle Railway (S&CR) diverges from the route of the (Little) North Western Railway (NWR) linking Skipton with Low Gill and Lancaster.
Immediately beyond the junction, the trackbed of the NWR route is level, but the S&CR route transitions through 1-in-300 to 1-in-100 and this marks the start of ‘The Long Drag': an almost continuous 1-in-100, 15¼ mile climb to the south end of Blea Moor Tunnel.