The three western portals of the notorious Woodhead Tunnel in August 1953 as the third bore - Woodhead New Tunnel - was nearing completion. Tunnel 1 dated from 1845, Tunnel 2 from 1853 and the New Tunnel's opening ceremony was on 3rd June 1954. They were three miles in length with a rising gradient from west to east. In steam days, Tunnel 1 was a choking, smoke-filled environmental nightmare for locomotive crews to endure. The last train ran on 17th July 1981 and the route was closed, only 27 years after electrification had been installed.

© Raymond McCarthy-Eddie Johnson Archive