A huge landslip near Armathwaite caused inconvenience for train users as it closed the northern part of the Carlisle-Settle line for 13 months — but for one person it proved a career highlight.
Fond farewells were said at Appleby last week as a man who had become a familiar figure to many local people moved on to a new job.
Friends and colleagues gave their best wishes to Manny Wright, who started working at Appleby station in 2008 but is taking up a new job near Hastings, where he will be closer to many family members.
However, it is with much regret that 46-year-old Manny is leaving his post in the ticket office at Appleby, which he says he has come to love — partly for the area’s scenery but mostly because of the local people with whom he has built up a real rapport.
“Leaving Appleby is really hard,” he said. “I will miss the scenery of the Carlisle-Settle line — the people of Eden are very fortunate to have it — but it is the people who have made the job what it was.”
He recalls that, having previously worked for six months at the hectic Oxford Road station, in Manchester, he at first found the one at Appleby a rather quiet and sometimes lonely place, until he got used to its gentler pace.
“I think talking with people is an important part of the job and when nobody is around there’s always something to do, like tidying up or watering the flowers during the summer,” he said.
While many Appleby residents find the time of the town’s horse fair to be stressful and unpleasant, Manny says the annual event has never caused too many problems at the station and generally brings with it a good atmosphere.
During his early days at Appleby he lived at Garsdale but then moved to Bentham, which gave a shorter journey to work.
For the past two years he has been based at Bexhill-on-Sea, in East Sussex, with his wife Michelle and their daughter Grace, commuting to work from his mother’s home at Brighouse, near Halifax.
Despite the inconvenience this involved, he was determined not to leave his Appleby job until he found another on the railways — which he has now done.
Looking back on his time working in Eden, Manny says the whole experience has been a highlight for him, but one particularly enjoyable period was after the disastrous landslip at Eden Brows in February, 2016, which resulted in rail services terminating at Appleby until March, 2017. A replacement bus service operated between stations to the north of the town.
“I know it was difficult for customers but Appleby became a terminus hub and I actually loved it,” he said.
“The place really came alive and I made many new friends, like the coach drivers with Bibby’s and other local firms.”
