Woodhead Tunnel - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Woodhead Tunnels are three parallel trans-Pennine 3-mile long railway tunnels on the Woodhead Line

Woodhead Line

The Woodhead Line was a railway line linking Sheffield, Penistone and Manchester in the north of England. A key feature of the route is the passage under the high moorlands of the northern Peak District through the Woodhead Tunnels...

, a former major rail link from Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

to Sheffield

Sheffield

Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...

in northern England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The western portals of the tunnels are at Woodhead

Woodhead

Woodhead is a small and scattered settlement at the head of the Longdendale valley in Derbyshire, England, situated 18 miles from Manchester and 17 miles from Barnsley. It lies on the River Etherow and the Trans Pennine Trail...

in Derbyshire

Derbyshire

Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...

and the eastern portals are at Dunford Bridge

Dunford Bridge

Dunford Bridge is a remote hamlet lying northwest of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England, from the border with West Yorkshire and from the border with Derbyshire. It lies in the Peak District, west of Penistone and south of Holmfirth, within the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley...

, near Penistone

Penistone

Penistone is a small town market town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley, in South Yorkshire, England, with a population of 10,101 at the 2001 census. It lies west of the town of Barnsley and north east of Glossop, in the foothills of the Pennines...

, South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of 1.29 million. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and City of Sheffield...

.

Woodhead 1 was one of the world's longest railway tunnels when it opened in 1845. Woodhead 2 was completed in 1853 and Woodhead 3 opened almost exactly 100 years later in 1953. Passenger services ended in 1970 and the last train passed through in 1981.

The tunnels are currently owned by National Grid plc

National Grid plc

National Grid plc is a multinational electricity and gas utility company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Its principal activities are in the United Kingdom and northeastern United States and it is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the world.National Grid is listed on...

who initially use Woodhead 1 and 2 to carry power cables and in 2008 started to install new cables in Woodhead 3. The use of Woodhead 3 for electrical cables was controversial as it would make it very much more difficult to restart rail services on the line and was resisted by a sizeable campaign.

Woodhead 1 and 2

The first of the earlier twin tunnels (Woodhead 1 and 2) were completed by the Sheffield, Ashton-Under-Lyne and Manchester Railway

Sheffield, Ashton-Under-Lyne and Manchester Railway

The Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway was an early British railway company which opened in stages between 1841 and 1845 between Sheffield and Manchester via Ashton-under-Lyne...

in 1845, engineered by Charles Vignoles and Joseph Locke

Joseph Locke

Joseph Locke was a notable English civil engineer of the 19th century, particularly associated with railway projects...

.

At the time of its completion in 1845, Woodhead 1 was one of the world's longest railway tunnels at a length of 3 miles 13 yards (4,840 m); it was the first of several trans-Pennine tunnels including the Standedge

Standedge Tunnels

The Standedge Tunnels are four parallel tunnels that run beneath the Pennines at the traditional Standedge crossing point between Marsden and Diggle, on the edges of the conurbations of West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester respectively, in northern England.There are three railway tunnels and a...

and Totley

Totley Tunnel

Totley Tunnel is a tunnel on the former Midland Railway Manchester-Sheffield line between Totley on the outskirts of Sheffield and Grindleford in Derbyshire, England. It was completed in 1893 and was the longest mainline railway tunnel within the United Kingdom that ran under land for its entire...

tunnels, which are only slightly longer.

Vignoles began work as soon as the line obtained its Act of Incorporation in Parliament in 1837. First the line was marked over the ridge and a series of vertical shafts were bored. From the bases of these, a horizontal driftway was driven along the line of the first bore. Although sufficient land had been purchased for two tunnels, only one would be built initially.

It was driven through mostly Millstone Grit

Millstone Grit

Millstone Grit is the name given to any of a number of coarse-grained sandstones of Carboniferous age which occur in the Northern England. The name derives from its use in earlier times as a source of millstones for use principally in watermills...

, interspersed in places by patches of argillaceous

Argillite

An argillite is a fine-grained sedimentary rock composed predominantly of indurated clay particles. Argillaceous rocks are basically lithified muds and oozes. They contain variable amounts of silt-sized particles. The argillites grade into shale when the fissile layering typical of shale is...

shale

Shale

Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...

and softer sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

on gradient of 1 in 201, rising toward the east. Wires were suspended down each shaft from which the centre line was determined by means of a theodolite

Theodolite

A theodolite is a precision instrument for measuring angles in the horizontal and vertical planes. Theodolites are mainly used for surveying applications, and have been adapted for specialized purposes in fields like metrology and rocket launch technology...

. The accuracy was such that the driftways met with less than three inches of error.

When Vignoles resigned because of differences with the directors, Locke took over as a consultant and reported that the amount of water being encountered required the purchase of more powerful pumps. Although the number of people employed reached 1,500 at one time, generally there were around 400 since there was limited space to work. Some 157 tons of gunpowder were used and over 8 million tons of water were pumped out. Once completed it had cost £200,000 and 26 lives had been lost.

The second bore was completed by the later Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway

Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway

The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway was formed by amalgamation in 1847. The MS&LR changed its name to the Great Central Railway in 1897 in anticipation of the opening in 1899 of its London Extension.-Origin:...

in 1852. Although more care was taken over the safety of the workers, an outbreak of cholera

Cholera

Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...

in 1849 resulted in 28 deaths.

The twin tunnels saw heavy use by steam trains (250 trains a day each way), and this traffic had a huge effect on the economy of the route well in to the 1950s.

They had a reputation for having a very poor operating environment with high maintenance needs, since such heavy usage had never been envisaged by their original constructors.

The tunnels were known to train crews as the "hell holes" as they were a very narrow bore and became claustrophobic and sooty as trains passed through and were too narrow and very unsuitable for electrification and were closed in 1953 when Woodhead 3 was completed.

Since 1963, the north tunnel has been used by National Grid plc

National Grid plc

to carry the trans-Pennine 400 kV electricity link below ground under the Peak District National Park. A narrow gauge railway runs into the tunnel to service this link.

The south tunnel, in worse condition, has suffered from collapses and is not currently suitable for cabling or transport.

In January 2008, work started to move the electrical cable from the north tunnel to Woodhead 3.

Woodhead 3

The first two tunnels were replaced by Woodhead 3 which was bored purposely for the electrification of the route and was completed in 1953. The tunnel was opened by the then transport minister Alan Lennox-Boyd

Alan Lennox-Boyd, 1st Viscount Boyd of Merton

Alan Tindal Lennox-Boyd, 1st Viscount Boyd of Merton, CH, PC, DL was a British Conservative politician.-Background, education and military service:...

on 3 June 1954. It was designed by Sir William Halcrow

William Halcrow

Sir William Halcrow was one of the most notable English civil engineers of the 20th century, particularly renowned for his expertise in the design of tunnels and for projects during the Second World War.-Early years:...

& Partners, in 1954.

This was electrified at 1,500V DC in a project known as the Manchester-Sheffield-Wath

Manchester-Sheffield-Wath electric railway

The Manchester-Sheffield-Wath electric railway was an early electrification scheme on British railways. The route featured long ascents on both sides of the Pennines with the long Woodhead Tunnel at its central summit close to the Woodhead pass...

electrification.

In the 1960s, it was proposed that this tunnel should be used as part of a Manchester to Sheffield motorway, but, in the end, only a short section of the M67 motorway

M67 motorway

The M67 is a urban motorway in Greater Manchester, England which heads east from the M60 motorway passing through Denton and Hyde before ending near Mottram. It had originally conceived as the first part of a trans-Pennine motorway between Manchester and Sheffield connecting the A57 motorway to...

was built.

Passenger services ceased in 1970 and the last train was on 17 July 1981.

In 2007, National Grid plc, the present owners of the tunnels, proposed to relocate electricity cables from the Victorian to the 1953 tunnel in 2008. This sparked controversy as it would mean that it would not be possible to use the newer tunnel for railway traffic in future. There are now various groups advocating keeping it open.

Location of portals

Woodhead entrance	0	53.495659°N 1.829765°W
Air vent 1	1.13 miles	53.503805°N 1.805992°W
Air vent 2	2.35 miles	53.512428°N 1.780163°W
Dunford Bridge entrance	3 miles	53.517377°N 1.765451°W

Proposals to re-open the tunnel for rail traffic

In 1999 Central Railway (UK)

Central Railway (UK)

Central Railway is a British company which proposes to build a new intermodal freight railway line, with a generous loading gauge, connecting the Channel Tunnel with the north of England, using much of the trackbed of the former Great Central Railway....

proposed using the Woodhead tunnel as part of an ambitious scheme to connect Liverpool to London.

In 2002 the Trans-Pennine Rail Group, a broadly based group of County Councils, Unitary Authorities, Passenger Transport Executives (PTE) and the Peak District National Park Authority provided evidence to a transport select committee identified interest from bidders for the Transpennine rail franchise in reopening the Woodhead route (in 2007 the Trans-Pennine Rail Group was wound up as its work was now being done by the Northern Way and the North West Rail Campaign).

In 2003 the Greater Manchester Branch of the Institute of Logistics and Transport presented evidence to a Parliamentary Select committee mentioning Arriva's interest in opening the Woodhead Line and Tunnel as part of their bid for the Trans-Pennine rail franchise

In 2006, a group calling itself 'Translink' proposed reopening the tunnel and the route for rail freight. This proposal is favoured by some groups opposing the construction of the Longdendale Bypass

Longdendale Bypass

The Longdendale Bypass was a controversial road scheme in England by the Highways Agency. The aim was to alleviate traffic congestion on the A57 road/A628 road/A616 road routes that presently pass through the villages...

, a controversial £180 million bypass for Mottram in Longdendale

Mottram in Longdendale

Mottram in Longdendale is an unparished village within the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies in the valley of Longdendale, on the border with Derbyshire and close to the Peak District neighbouring Broadbottom and Hattersley. Mottram in Longdendale Parish was...

, Hollingworth

Hollingworth

Hollingworth is a village within the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, in Greater Manchester, England. It is about twelve miles east of Manchester on the Derbyshire border at Glossop...

and Tintwistle

Tintwistle

Tintwistle is a village and civil parish in the High Peak district of the non-metropolitan county of Derbyshire, England. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 1,401. The village is just north of Glossop at the lower end of Longdendale Valley...

(which is officially known as the 'A57/A628 Mottram-in-Longdendale, Hollingworth & Tintwistle Bypass').

Current situation

One of the Victorian tunnels, the south tunnel, is in a poor condition and is unused. The north tunnel carries electrical cables for the National Grid that are coming to the end of their operational life and National Grid plc is preparing to install electricity cables in Woodhead 3, which would make it unavailable for rail traffic. The other two older tunnels are not suitable for rail traffic due to their poor state of repair.

In July 2007 the Peak District National Park formally expressed concern at the plans to place cables in Woodhead 3, observing that it could not then be used for rail traffic. In September 2007 the Government Office for the East Midlands replied indicating that in their view it was unlikely that the route would be used for rail traffic and declined to intervene. On 4 December 57 MPs signed an early day motion

Early day motion

An Early Day Motion , in the Westminster system, is a motion, expressed as a single sentence, tabled by Members of Parliament for debate "on an early day" . Controversial EDMs are not signed by Government Ministers, PPS or the Speaker of the House of Commons and very few are debated on the floor...

in the Commons brought by Manchester Blackley MP

Manchester Blackley (UK Parliament constituency)

Manchester, Blackley was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election...

Graham Stringer

Graham Eric Stringer is a British Labour Party politician who is the current Member of Parliament for Blackley and Broughton having previously represented Manchester Blackley from 1997 to 2010.-Early life:...

expressing concern at laying cables in a viable tunnel for rail traffic. On 18 December a written answer in the Commons stated that laying cables in the tunnel would not preclude opening the route to rail traffic. On 23 January the Department for Transport 'clarified' this, saying that that only the older Victorian tunnels, which were in poor condition, would be available. In December 2007 the Campaign for Better Transport (UK) began campaigning to keep the Woodhead Tunnel available for rail traffic and encouraging people to write to their MP. On 8 January the Northern Way, a collaboration between the three Northern Regional Development Agencies: Yorkshire Forward

Yorkshire Forward

Yorkshire Forward is the regional development agency for the Yorkshire and the Humber region of the United Kingdom. It supports the development of business in the region by encouraging public and private investment in education, skills, environment and infrastructure...

, Northwest Regional Development Agency

Northwest Regional Development Agency

The Northwest Regional Development Agency is the regional development agency for the North West England region and is a non-departmental public body.....

and One NorthEast

One NorthEast

One North East is the regional development agency for the North East England region.-History:It was established in April 1999. The North East receives a lot of government aid for regeneration....

, called for the government to ensure the potential reuse of Woodhead Tunnels for rail use in the future. The Northern Way had previously published that economic benefit could be as much as £10 billion nationally with £3.5 billion of this in the North.

On 15 January 2008 one hundred protesters gathered at the end of the Woodhead tunnel to protest at plans to use it for electricity cables, establishing a campaign group, Save the Woodhead Tunnel, re-named Re-open the Woodhead Tunnel in 2009. On 24 January 2008 preparatory work started.

Sources

Bain, Simon (1986) Railroaded! (Battle for Woodhead Pass), London, Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-13909-4
Dow, G., (1959) Great Central, Volume One: The Progenitors (1813-1863) , Shepperton: Ian Allan Ltd.

Heritage

The Don Valley Railway Line
The woodheadsite - has good history section
Woodhead Station on Subterranea Britannica
National on film - Woodhead Line video of train going through tunnel in 1969 from the BBC 'Nation on Film'.
Railways of Britain - Woodhead
Chris Davies MEP speaking on the future of the tunnel

Current proposals

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.