Woodhead Tunnel
Woodhead Tunnel
![Woodhead's abandoned platforms on the western approaches to the new tunnel.](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image1-228.jpg)
![The tunnel's west portal is at the head of remote Longdendale.](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image2-228.jpg)
![The well-secured entrance sits at the foot of a rockface.](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image3-228.jpg)
![Cable hangers still run through the concrete-lined tunnel.](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image4-227.jpg)
![National Grid infrastructure obscures the Victorian single bores.](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image5-225.jpg)
![This monumental engineering feat officially opened on 3rd June 1954.](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image6-218.jpg)
![Electricity cables disappear into the north tunnel at Dunford Bridge.](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image7-207.jpg)
![A commissioning train leaves the new tunnel's eastern portal.](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image8-184.jpg)
![As a train enters the new tunnel, the CEGB worked inside the old.](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image9-160.jpg)
![Shut up shop - the new tunnel shortly after closure in 1982. © Bill Blair](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image10-119.jpg)
![](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image1-228.jpg)
![](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image2-228.jpg)
![](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image3-228.jpg)
![](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image4-227.jpg)
![](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image5-225.jpg)
![](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image6-218.jpg)
![](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image7-207.jpg)
![](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image8-184.jpg)
![](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image9-160.jpg)
![](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image10-119.jpg)
The first of Woodhead’s two single bores, engineered by Charles Vignoles and Joseph Locke, opened to traffic in 1845. It rises on a 1 in 200 gradient towards Dunford Bridge at its east end. Seven years later, the second tunnel was finished.
By the end of the Second World War, they were in such poor condition that Halcrow & Partners was contracted to build a new double-track tunnel. The line was also electrified. After five years work, the ribbon was cut by Transport Minister Alan Lennox-Boyd on 3rd June 1954. It cost £4.6million and six lives.
The little-used passenger service bit the dust in January 1970 but it was not until Saturday 18th July 1981 that a Harwich ferry train became the last service ever the pass through the tunnel.