The LNER Encyclopedia

Can anyone give the exact date of the opening of the new Woodhead tunnel in the 50s.

I was the fireman on the ballast train that worked at the Dunford Bridge end for the day and when the track was slewed and everything was done we had to draw out of the siding we had been in all day to go far enough forwards to be able to back onto the main line again.

During this we actually went some distance into the new tunnel making plenty of smoke as I had just pushed the fire from under the door and we had several guys taking photo's.

This would be the only time a steam engine went into the tunnel under its own steam and I wondered if anyone had ever seen one of these pics' or had access to them.

During the day as we had nothing else to do, the engine was trapped in the siding until work was finished so both my driver and I walked through the tunnel to Woodhead and back.

[quote="Boris"]Can anyone give the exact date of the opening of the new Woodhead tunnel in the 50s.

This is a complete guess but I seem to recall it was opened in 1955. It’s closure was a sheer act of railway vandalism not to mention good money wasted. But there is at least some hope it will come back into use once more?

It was opened by the Minister of Transport on 3rd of June 1954, but I cannot find any information on when the first trains actually ran through it

I think that was the day of the "Official" opening and trains were already running through by then

Boris wrote:I think that was the day of the "Official" opening and trains were already running through by then

Possibly not. In 'Woodhead - the electric railway' by E.M.Johnson there is a picture looking down at the mouths of the three tunnels at Woodhead showing two Bo+Bos and dated May 30th, 1954. The caption reads as follows:

" Last days of the old route through Woodhead. Two Bo+Bos, Nos 26001 & 26016, the locomotives we saw in the frontpiece view at Dunford, are almost ready to make their historic trip through the new tunnel. Over on the "old" side of the railway the two bores will carry steam-hauled traffic for just one more weekend, then the new tunnels will be consigned to the history books - at least as far as rail traffic is concerned."

May 30th was a Sunday and June 3rd was the following Thursday, so I have no idea where the extra weekend comes in, but certainly it looks like traffic did not start prior to the official oppening.

Regards,

Brian.

To the best of my knowledge there was no connection to the new tunnel until the Sunday I was on the ballst train at Dunford, May 30th.
Maybe there was at the Woodhead end I don't know and isn't the photo of the 2 electrics at the Woodhead end anyway.

The answer may be found in this radio recording :-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=602HVf4yX-4