Spirit of the Settle Carlisle Line Photo Competition

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Settle Carlisle line and part of the Rail200 the Settle Carlisle Railway Development Company is running this photo competition. 

The theme is “Spirit of the Settle Carlisle Line” and images must be taken by the person entering the competition. 

Entries must be in JPEG format and no larger than 36.8 MB. The closing date for the competition is 10am on Monday 2 June, 2025. 

The best twelve photographs will then make up the Settle Carlisle Railway Calendar for 2026, and the overall winner will also receive two First Class tickets on a future charter train!

Happy snapping! 

How to enter the competition: 

We are only accepting online entries and they need to be in landscape format. You can enter by emailing your digital photos as an attachment with your name, contact phone number, and address to marketing@settle-carlisle.co.uk. There’s a maximum of one photo per email, however you may submit three entries separately.  

We can only accept photos in JPEG format and only up to a maximum size of 10mb. Please keep copies of your original files if they are bigger than this, as we may need them later on if you are successful.  

Entries will be accepted from Wednesday, 12 February until 10am on Monday 2th June 2025. 

Please ensure you read the full Terms and Conditions before entering. 

The theme ‘Spirit of the Settle Carlisle Line’ is open to the interpretation of the photographer. But entries should feature some element of the line. 

The competition will have one overall winner decided by the Settle Carlisle Railway Development Company’s Management Committee. Not only will their picture take pride of place on the cover of the 2026 calendar, but they’ll also get two first-class tickets for a Settle Carlisle Railway Development Company charter journey.  

A further 11 winners will have their photograph included in the 2026 Settle Carlisle Railway calendar and will receive a goodie bag of Settle Carlisle souvenirs. 

All 12 winning entries will be displayed in an exhibition at Carlisle and Leeds railway stations.  

Entry to the competition will mean the photographer gives their permission for the image to be used by the Settle Carlisle Railway Development Company for the promotion of the line and for use in the 2026 calendar and exhibition. 

The competition is open to amateurs and professionals.  

Terms & Condition 

The title for the Settle Carlisle Railway Development Company photo competition is ‘Spirit of the Settle Carlisle Line’ The theme is open to your personal interpretation. 

Photographs taken in previous years can be submitted. Please indicate when the photograph was taken. 

The twelve photographs selected by the judges will appear in the Settle Carlisle Railway Calendar for 2026. 

The closing date for entries is 10am on Monday 2 June  2025. 

The person who takes the winning photo will receive a voucher for two first-class dining tickets on a Settle Carlisle Railway Development Company charter. 

GENERAL RULES 

1. Entrants – including those using drones – must have the necessary permits and licences for photographing wildlife, and should, where necessary, have permission from the landowners to be on their land. They should be ready to provide proof if asked to do so by the competition organisers.. 

2. Entrants can submit up to three photos in total (in landscape orientation and as JPEGS) Photos must be sent as an attachment to an email containing their name, phone number, address and title of their photograph and a maximum of 36.8 Megabytes. 

3. The Settle Carlisle Railway Development Company is aware that digital photography does allow for some image enhancement. You can enter images that have had spots, scratches or other blemishes removed. You can have worked on the colour or enhanced the image for the sake of the composition. You can also crop the image to improve composition. 

We will not accept the use of AI during the creation, design or development of the images. 

4. Online entrants under the age of 18 will need their parents or guardians, the covering email will also require the parent’s name, phone number and email address, and give permission for their child’s participation. All contact from Settle Carlisle Railway Development Company will be made through the parent/guardian. 

5. The competition submission period closes at 10am on Monday 2nd June 2025. 

Unsuccessful entrants will not be contacted and no feedback on any entry will be provided. 

6.  All photographs will be judged on the following criteria: 

Composition Technical ability Originality Public appeal Is it on theme Suitability for inclusion in the Settle Carlisle Railway calendar 

7. The prize for the overall winner will be two first-class dining tickets for a Settle Carlisle railway Development Company’s charter train. The prizes are as stated and cannot be deferred or transferred. There will be no cash alternatives.  

8. The finalists (together with a further twelve photographs and a selection of several for the inside back cover chosen by the Management Committee) shall appear in the Settle Carlisle Railway 2026 calendar to be sold in aid of Settle Carlisle Railway Development Company and used in other promotions of the Company. 

9.  The judges’ decisions will be final and no correspondence can be entered into. 

10. All entries must be the original work of the entrant and must not infringe the rights of any other party. The entrants must be the sole owner of copyright in all photographs entered and must have obtained permission from any people featured in the entries or their parents/guardians if children under 16 are featured. Where an individual or a residential or commercial property belonging to someone other than the photographer is featured, or it has been taken on private land, the photographer must seek permission and be prepared to provide written consent, when requested by the Settle Carlisle Railway Development Company. Further, entrants must not have breached any laws when taking their photographs. 

11. Entrants will retain copyright in the photographs that they submit to the Settle Carlisle Railway Development Company. By entering the competition all entrants grant to the Settle Carlisle Railway Development Company the right to publish and exhibit their photographs and use them on their website in perpetuity. Entrants whose photographs are one of the final 12, also agree to take part in post-competition publicity. 

We make every effort to credit photographers, including in printed reproductions of their work.  

12. By entering, entrants will be deemed to have agreed to be bound by these rules and the Settle Carlisle Railway Development Company reserve the right to exclude any entry from the competition at any time and in its absolute discretion if the Settle Carlisle Railway Development Company has reason to believe that an entrant has breached these rules, acted fraudulently in any way or brings the Settle Carlisle Railway Development Company into disrepute. When an entry is submitted by a parent or guardian on behalf of an entrant, the parent and/or guardian shall be responsible for the entrant’s compliance with these rules. 

13. The Settle Carlisle Railway Development Company reserve the right to cancel this competition or alter any of the rules at any stage if deemed necessary in its opinion, and if circumstances arise outside of its control. 

14. Please take your photos responsibly and always follow the rail safety. You can find more information here; https://www.northernrailway.co.uk/travel/safety 

We will only accept JPEGS, no larger than 36.8 MB we will not accept hard copies sent through the post. Send your entries to marketing@settle-carlisle.co.uk