The Woodhead Route

[meldrum]

I don't know about passing out, but certain stories about the old tunnels are certainly true.

I heard first hand about drivers and firemen lying on the floor of the cab to avoid the worst of the smoke. And, of course, they had to touch the side of the tunnel with the shovel to tell what direction they were going in.

And in books I have read that there is a signal box in the up(?) bore that was intended to break up the block, but that it was impossible to get signalmen for. Also the drivers couldn't see the signals. On a similar vein, the working lives of the track workers in the tunnel was shockingly short as they succumbed to industrial disease.

I to have heard first hand accounts of the awful conditions in Woodhead tunnel in steam days. The first time through, the young fireman was told to wet a piece of cloth put it over your mouth then both he and the driver lay down on the footplate until they were out the other end! On the subject of tunnel accidents Combe Down tunnel on the S&DJR was. a by all accounts another good (should that be bad?) example and was the scene of a runaway train accident in 1929 when the crew were overcome with fumes. This runaway ended in the deaths of three staff.

[Boris]

I find the remarks about passing out in Woodhead on West bound trains a bit iffy as after the first 1/2mile steam was shut off as it was then a falling gradientand the tunnel was clear of smoke.

East bound was always full of smoke though and the bit about a shovel on the wall???, if the loco was in forward gear and moving it would be going forwards and you would certainly know if it wasn't

There was ONE incudent of a Capproti fitted engine with the reversing wheel on the cab side and the engine stalled on a mail train.
The driver put the loco into what he thought was forward gear and got the train moving.
He had got it wrong being unused to that type of reversing gear and came out backwards, and into the sidings as the line was always set into an empty road for emegancies.

I believe the guard saw what was happening and applied his brake valve and as it was a fitted train no damage was done

Correct me if I am wrong

The sand drags at Valehouse were never used in the 10 years I worked over there with unfitted coal trains

[69999]

As a relatively new member of this Forum I have only just come across this topic.
I have studied the Woodhead Route extensively over many years. I agree with Boris, it seems strange that westbound trains are the ones where crews are alleged to have been overcome by smoke and fumes in the Woodhead Tunnel leading to loss of control of the train and these excursions into the buffer stops and sand drags. This same phenomenon afflicted both steam and electrically hauled trains.
I recall no references to eastbound steam hauled trains emerging from the tunnel at Dunford Bridge out of control and with the crew incapacitated.
Boris states correctly that the summit of the route is reached a few hundred yards into the tunnel.
In respect of steam hauled trains heading west through the old tunnel it might be possible to believe that a combination of wet rails in the tunnel and lack of awareness of speed on the downgrade through the dark unlit tunnel might be a contributory cause. In this event then the train would be out of control when it emerged at Woodhead.
Electric trains, however, had no such problems. A brand new, dry, electrically lit tunnel and certainly no smoke and fumes!
Despite these seemingly favourable conditions, excursions still occurred.
I have photographs of two different EM1 locomotives on westbound goods trains derailed after running through the bufferstops at the end of the loop at the crossing at Torside -26004 in 1956, 26019 in 1954.
A previous posting refers to the illustration in ‘Trains in Trouble’ of a GCR 9J coming to grief at Torside and certainly the commercial postcard from which the illustration is taken is annotated ‘Torside Railway Smash’. This, however, is in incorrect. This accident occurred at the Hadfield end of the Valehouse sand drag. The image as it appears in the book has been changed slightly. I have an original postcard of this and there is a large mill-type chimney apparently ‘growing’ out of the moors behind the loco. Additionally, Torside was a public level crossing with gates, footbridge and stone built crossing keepers cottage. None of these appear on the image of the 9J – which incidentally is 1118 – later J11 4394 and 64394.
As an aside to the above, 1118 should have had the advantage of a ‘fitted head’ in the shape of the bogie loco coal wagon next to the tender. I wonder if it had been connected up? Ahead of the derailed locomotive a coal wagon lies upside down on the track. Presumably this wagon did a somersault over the loco and bogie wagon!
A final comment to ‘thesectionalappendix’ – if still a member – I wonder if the old Inn at Saltersbrook was renamed in the years following the momentous meetings? I have a copy of an old postcard showing it as the ‘Millers Arms’.

DG
69999

[Bill Bedford]

I've always understood that the real problems were in the two Silkstone tunnels on the Wath branch, rather than Woodhead.

[Boris]

Re 69999s remarks regarding awareness of speed in the West bound tunnel.
Never was a problem as you could quite clearly see the tunnel walls ans hear the rail joints.
Only awareness was on passenger trains where the rock and roll certainly made you aware of the speed, and I mean rock and roll.

I did my firemans exam on the 0840 Sheffield Vic' to London Road, 9/3/48 with Inspector Joe Winters.

First time over the hill and I fired from Penistone, a Stavely Cleaner had fired from Sheffield.

I certainly hung onto the cab side through the tunnel, the only thing that calmed me was the Inspector and driver just chatting away at the other side.

And nearly s==t myself as we shot over Dinting viaduct at 40 mph, again rocking and rolling, never been so high up in my life except when as an army cadet I had been up in a D.C.3 when they had no doors on the side and I was in the seat just forwards of that door.

[Trafford Park]

The Manchester end of the Woodhead line went over to the London Midland about 1958.

[bw1165]

My grandfather used to relate that going through Woodhead on a steam engine was a pretty unpleasant business, handkerchief over mouth sort of job, and he was no softie.

As the the LMR transfer, he used to refer to it as 'when the Midland took over' and his opinion was that thereafter there was a concerted effort to shut the GC down. Not history, of course, but his genuine opinion.

[Boris]

The picture on the second item on here, Mr B, says before the wires were hung
The gantry on that photo nevr had any as it was one of the pre war ones which were all taken down and replaced after the war.
The one one he photo would have intended wires going into the old tunnels which would never have happened