The WOODHEAD Route. Old railway from Wortley to Thurgoland Tunnel . Sheffield June 2024

Dave embarks on an exploration of probably the most outrageously closed route in UK railway history.
The Woodhead line was the 19th- century built, original railway link between Sheffield and Manchester and later becoming part of the Great Central Railway.
It would become home to Britain's first ever all electric mainline passenger service in the 1950s, only to see it's demise in 1970s with the cuts made by Dr Beeching.
Having completed his first spot of rail safari from Deepcar, Dave resumes travel on the other side of the Stocksbridge bypass.
The first call comes straight away at the well kept former Wortley station with it's topiary-lined platform and eye-catching date stone.
Setting off again through the long, deep and once notoriously flooded cutting beyond, we emerge onto embankments passing further remains of steel infrastructure and then the junction with a short industrial branch line to Stainborough.
Of course the star attraction comes at the end as Dave leads us on a live narrated walkthrough the length of Thurgoland Tunnel, via its late 1940s-built single bore, as recently relit in a brilliant silver-white while sharing another few interesting secrets en route