AMATEUR radio enthusiasts from Leyland are making tracks to celebrate the anniversary of the highest railway line in the country.

Members of the Central Lancashire Amateur Radio Club, based at the Priory Club, in Broadfield Drive, Leyland, are heading north to set up a radio broadcast in memory of the navvies who built the 72-mile Settle to Carlisle railway 125 years ago.

The line took six years to build and Saturday, September 1, is the anniversary of the day that construction was complete.

Radio enthusiast Jack Proctor, a retired textile technician from Leyland, organised the visit to the Cumbrian railway.

He said: "To us it is the railway that wouldn't die. When I was younger I got really interested in the railway. When they were trying to close it a while back I organised a radio broadcast to help promote it.

"I knew it was coming up to the 125th anniversary, so we have organised another broadcast."

To commemorate the event the enthusiasts have set up a special call-sign -- GB125SCL -- through official body the Radio Communication Agency and say they can't wait to hit the airwaves.

Mr Proctor said: "The broadcast will go out from the Ribblehead Station in Yorkshire.

"On the day we will be broadcasting around England, chatting with people, telling them about the railway. At night the conditions mean we can broadcast further. I don't think there will be an area unable to hear us!"