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The Woodhead Tunnels are three trans-Pennine railway tunnels which formerly carried a major rail link (usually known as the ''' Woodhead Route ''') from Manchester to Sheffield in northern England . The western portals are at Woodhead in Derbyshire and the eastern portals are at Dunford Bridge , near Penistone , South Yorkshire . The first of the earlier twin tunnels (Woodhead 1 & 2) were completed by the Sheffield, Ashton-Under-Lyne And Manchester Railway in 1845 , engineered by Charles Vignoles and Joseph Locke . At the time of its completion in 1845, Woodhead 1 was one of the world's longest railway tunnels at a length of 3 miles 13 yards (4,840 m); it was the first of several trans-Pennine tunnels ( Standedge , Totley ), which are only slightly longer. Vignoles began work as soon as the line obtained its Act of Incorporation in Parliament in 1837 . First the line was marked over the ridge and a series of vertical shafts were bored. From the bases of these, a horizontal driftway was driven along the line of the first bore. Although sufficient land had been purchased for two tunnels, only one would be built initially. It was driven through mostly Millstone Grit , interspersed in places by patches of Argillaceous Shale and softer Sandstone on gradient of 1 in 201, rising toward the east. Wires were suspended down each shaft from which the centre line was determined by means of a theodolite. The accuracy was such that the driftways met with less than three inches of error. When Vignoles resigned because of differences with the directors, Locke took over as a consultant and reported that the amount of water being encountered required the purchase of more powerful pumps. Although the number of people employed reached 1,500 at one time, generally there were around 400 since there was limited space to work. Some 157 tons of gunpowder were used and over 8 million tons of water were pumped out. When completed it had cost £200,000 and 26 lives had been lost. The second bore was completed by the later Manchester, Sheffield And Lincolnshire Railway in 1852 . Although more care was taken over the safety of the workers, an outbreak of Cholera in 1849 resulted in 28 deaths. The twin tunnels saw heavy use by steam trains (250 trains a day each way) and had a reputation for having a Poor Working Environment with high maintenance needs, since such heavy usage had never been envisaged by their original constructors. They were replaced by Woodhead 3, a new double-track tunnel designed by Sir William Halcrow & Partners, in 1954 . This was electrified at 1.5 kV DC in a project known as the Manchester-Sheffield-Wath electrification. In the 1960s one of the earlier tunnels had a new lease of life, having been acquired and renovated by the CEGB to carry the trans-Pennine 400 kV electricity link below ground, rather than over the moors of the Peak District National Park . A narrow gauge railway runs into the tunnel to service this link 1 Alternative uses for the tunnel route have been suggested from time to time — see M67 Motorway . REFERENCES SOURCES
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