Steam operation at the newly refurbished Woodhead Station is about to be consigned to history. This was the opening day of the New Woodhead Tunnel on Thursday 3rd June 1954 and 1500v DC electric operation would now be the future - for a while! Ex-LNER Thompson 'B1' 4-6-0 No. 61160 emerges from No. 2 bore with a westbound train for Manchester. This tunnel's three miles of choking, smoke-filled gloom will soon be but a memory. 61160 was built by Vulcan Foundry in May 1947 as LNER No. 1160 and was withdrawn in Sept. 1963.

© Raymond McCarthy-Eddie Johnson Archive