Woodhead station and tunnel

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The 'new' Woodhead tunnel and old station platforms, the approach is now part of the Trans Pennine Trail. . The Manchester to Sheffield line was built in the mid nineteenth century and went under the Pennines through two parallel three mile long tunnels (built within a few years of each other). After taking over the line the London and North Eastern (!) Railway company started work to electrify the line before being stopped by the Second World War, electrification was eventually completed by British Railways in 1955. The two old tunnels were too small to electrify and they were in a poor state so a new larger tunnel was built to replace them, completed in October 1953. The tunnel opening ceremony was 3rd June 1954 with regular workings staring a few days after that. The old station was replaced by the two fairly short staggered platforms seen here. . Sadly the line was closed to passengers in 1970 and to goods traffic (mainly coal from the Yorkshire mines) in 1981, the locomotives and electricity supply (1500v DC) were non-standard and worn-out and would have been expensive to replace so this middle section of the line was closed. . The two old tunnels are now bricked up and the new tunnel is used by the National Grid to carry 400,000 volt electricity supply cables. #woodheadtunnel #transpenninetrail #disusedrailway #tunnel #railway #woodhead #nationalgrid

A post shared by John | Exploration and history (@merrytrek) on Oct 25, 2019 at 2:02pm PDT