Searching For Remains of the Woodhead Tunnels

[@jasonburke2596]

Super video boys. You found more air shafts than me and my pal did!

[@WobblyRunner]

Cheers Jason.

[@kieran4550ify]

Cheers fellas!

[@WobblyRunner]

👍

[@mickd6942]

I hope people realise just how much climbing and trecking you did to bring us this superb video .

[@WobblyRunner]

It was indeed a trek. All good fun though :) Well worth it for the video.

[@kazzle101]

one of the older tunnels had a signal box inside it, about halfway through. It must have been a 'delight' to work in.

[@WobblyRunner]

That sounds grim doesn't it 😊

[@mickd6942]

They offered half shifts and extra pay but no one would work it so it wasn't open long .

[@WobblyRunner]

Genuine question, what was the purpose of a signal box in a tunnel? There's ones at either end.

[@chrisburton9645]

Great vid again. The surveyors would have been back and forth over the area where you walked trying to get the surveying stations on the line between the chosen ends of the tunnel in a straight line by getting them moved to be directly between the sighting points either side of them. It would have been an iterative process as each move to a more accurate location would ripple out. With the line was eventually surveyed dead straight over the three miles, they then had to take vertical levels and exactly horizontal distances to calculate the orientation and vertical angle of slope between the two ends They had to note the horizontal distances to the shafts and then had to work out the depths of the shafts to the slope of the tunnel floor and measure those down. They then had to sight both those angles horizontal and vertical from both ends to put the pilot bore through. It's quicker to just follow a pilot bore with the main bore. The first sighting point would have been on the hillside opposite so they could sight over as much moor as possible. It's a shame there is no tunneling museum allowing you to look through the instruments. You only walked it once, they must have needed a heard of mountain ponies for going back and forth. The "woodhead" reservoir chain was being constructed at a similar time - much of that project was further west in Manchester - but it was the world's biggest exercise of its kind - so that area must have been a global centre of civil engineering with many of the world's top engineers visiting.

[@briancooper562]

The Roman way was to light fires and get the fires to align at which time solid marker would be built. The solid marker would also have a vertical datum from a master on either or both ends of the tunnel. The marker would have a device where by a local elevation datum could be positioned to transfer to a depth of the workings down the building shaft to required track level.

[@WobblyRunner]

Great info Chris. I can't imagine having to walk back and forth in winter months or bad weather. What a job that must have been for those men surveying and building.

[@chrisburton9645]

@@WobblyRunner On towards Dinting Arches next then. The wooden arches were replaced with a wrought iron box section in 1860 but the name lived on . . . .

[@andrewmaurerandrew6801]

Another fantastic watch on a Friday night just keep them coming top man👍

[@WobblyRunner]

Thanks Andrew as always

[@rodericstanley2258]

I went from Oughtibridge to Penistone by train from 1952-59 (forms 2A-5A, Lowe 6th, Upper 6th, 3d yr 6th at PGS), so they must have been working in tunnel 5 for the early part of that. I then went to Manchester University, from 59 to 62. (Man U and Sheff. Wed had good teams back then, so two of us went to most of their home games) on the saturdays. So I went through tunnel 3 many times from Manchester to Sheffield Victoria station, now gone. I also remember the switch from steam to electric, the final shutting down of the line to passenger traffic.

[@WobblyRunner]

Some great memories 👍🙂 As a Sheff Wed fan, those two teams couldn't be further apart these days 😳

[@rodericstanley2258]

@@WobblyRunner Yes I was there when they beat Man U 7-2 at OldT in the cup after thy had played 1-1 at S6.

[@clivebroadhead4381]

The HV cables are attached to the side of the tunnel wall as in other rail tunnels, so the 1950's tunnel could and should be reopened for a direct service of trains between Sheffield and Manchester. The Hope Valley route through the Peak District is a mineral line and too slow for as major mixed traffic route between two major cities.

[@daystatesniper01]

Great video me and a couple of mates walked through the new tunnel about five months after closure ,all that was then over the portals was that plastic orange fencing lol

[@WobblyRunner]

👍. Oh to have that opportunity now :)

[@alistaircook5605]

Great video again in the series. Wasn’t it the same government in power at the time who also wanted to close the settle to Carlisle route ? Shame the same people who saved that didn’t get involved with the Woodhead.

[@WobblyRunner]

I suppose the S&C still had a passenger service that helped a bit. Can you imagine if they had closed that? Great to see it thriving these days.

[@Carolb66]

I still can't get over Paul this line was closed! Criminal. Trans pennine is a major link in this country for passengers & freight. It would have been viable surely in todays climate to have this tunnel open. Everytime ive got on a teain to Manchester its packed & coming home its been standing room only. Then when driving across that woodhead pass is not suitable for the amount of traffic with huge lorries & cars bombing round the country lanes then in winter its closed too often. Cant believe tunnels are now just huge cables carrying for the electricity board, im just glad ive been lucky enough & be old enough to have seen trains come out of the new tunnel befire 1981. Fab video Paul. & Jon! ❤❤😊👍

[@WobblyRunner]

Thanks Carol. You're 100%. I dread travelling to Manchester, by either train or road. Me and Jon were out filming from Woodhead to Hadfield last week and the traffic was extremely busy. It was difficult just crossing the road.

[@andrewmarriott4033]

I can just remember trains running through there just before the line must have closed it’s a amazing area

[@johnbarlow2243]

The air shaft visible on the moors are for the 2 early tunnels one shaft served both tunnels i worked in the tunnels in the nineties relining the roof in the first tunnel access was from the second tunnel which had the HV cables they were cross over passages every 200 yards approx. We had a paddy train which went most of the way the tracks are still visible today I have walked the full length of both tunnels and you could see the other end from the start interesting working there the roof was still covered in soot

[@WobblyRunner]

That's fascinating John. I've not heard from many people who have been inside the tunnels in recent times. Interesting to hear they were connected like that. Great info.

[@mickd6942]

The navigation pillars look like survaying points to get the correct line of the tunnel during construction .

[@mickd6942]

Nice suprise this one , i did a cycle wild camp on top of thr new tunnel a few weeks ago , cycled from stairfoot and up the fearsome windle edge then onto the moors , could see the ventilation shafts but we stayed on the path over the new tunnel .

[@WobblyRunner]

That's some ride from Stairfoot!!!

[@mickd6942]

That plato near the red building is rubble from tunnel construction , we walked it's circumference with bikes looking for a place to camp , well done on getting to that surviving shaft , it looks so close but glad we didn't try to get to it.

[@nidgesmith797]

Brick-built structure with iron door and very sturdy locks make me think it could be an explosive store, pretty sure they would have done blasting in the construction

[@stevenstopford9847]

Many thanks for a brilliant vid 👍🏻

[@WobblyRunner]

Cheers Ste 🍻

[@maestromanification]

Very interesting video Paul, I last explored up there in 2003 the air shaft with the 76 mural on was still there. There was a cracking pub at Dunford Bridge back then we stayed in a motor home and they let us park overnight in carpark On your drone footage at Dunford Bridge you can see 2ft gauge track and this was put in when the cables were in the old tunnel. On our visit a train cane out of the site to meet a delivery lorry I do wonder if the stock is still on site though I can't imagine it's used anymore

[@WobblyRunner]

Cheers Russ. The track for that narrow guage line into one of the older tunnels is just a concrete track lookalike now. You can follow it right to the gates. You think the equipment is bricked up in the tunnel?

[@maestromanification]

@WobblyRunner I'd like to think the stock got sold. 2ft gauge stuff is worth decent money these day Shame the rails were removed Not sure how true it is but I've heard it said there was adits between new and old tunnels I wished I'd walked the new tunnel when you could

[@DJ_K666]

If I remember correctly, they used one older bore for cables and the other for maintenance access with a narrow gauge railway. I think this has vanished too. There is a cab ride video of the Woodhead route here on KZbin.

[@carolinecleaveley-q1r]

Hi . can you please film around sulgrave and greetworth as roads now closed and would be interested in the progress round that site please. thanks Caroline.

[@john-pu5uy]

Great Video lads... shame they dont clean up the stone works.... looking a little sorry for themselves.... wasted Mainline for sure... would have been fantastic today

[@WobblyRunner]

Sure would. Amazing to think the newer tunnel is in such good condition.

[@iancaveney7464]

I recall a proposal in the mid-2000s to build an intermodal marshaling yard near Hattersley that could've seen the line reopen, alas, National Grid scuppered that plan.

[@WobblyRunner]

Yeah I read similar.

[@briancooper562]

The posts early concrete stands with the metal tops would be the hill top sightline and height datums for the building of shafts (later ventilation shafts). Interesting is the concrete which looks like a roman mix with rounded river stone aggregates.(Portland cement industrial process only invented in 1824} I was thinking when you where down by the road you would be looking at the water drainage tunnel crossing under the road, tunnel 3 on the older map?

[@WobblyRunner]

I took a few drone shots of the water drainage tunnel and the gorge.

[@carolinecleaveley-q1r]

thanks for that film. just remember the electrics at Wath and Reddish but not the tunnel. caroline

[@WobblyRunner]

Thanks Caroline. 👍

[@PrinceJohn84]

I wonder what the men who built the new tunnel thought when it was discarded in 1981 🤔

[@WobblyRunner]

Great question. I doubt any of the workers are still with us, but I wonder if any relatives have any insight.

[@briancooper562]

According to British Rail - Gradient Profiles Ian Allen, Profile M18 Woodhead was 1:201

[@suzyqualcast6269]

Just like Clay X tunnel and it's 'pepperpots'.

[@mickd6942]

The stanhope arms at dunford bridge now a private residence will soon open for food and camping pods and normal camping in 2025 it has just been announced .

[@WobblyRunner]

Good to know. Will give a bit of life to Dunford Bridge.

[@nigelkthomas9501]

The old bores could be reopened and amalgamated into one double track tunnel I think. All it would take is £££ and a lot of manpower and machinery!

[@WobblyRunner]

🙂👍 Only small obstacles. These days, it would be agreed, funded and started. Then downgraded to a narrow guided busway or something.

[@nigelkthomas9501]

@@WobblyRunner Very likely; sadly!

[@mickd6942]

If you take the path at the gate near where windle edge meets the woodhead road there is a red brick building with solid metal blast doors by the side of the path which could have been some sort of explosive store ( note to self completely watch video before commenting as its on your video lol)

[@WobblyRunner]

🙂