|
|
|
|
The railway brought industrialisation to the valley and three railway tunnels. Work on the railway line began in 1839 and in 1845 the first passenger train went through the valley using the newly opened Woodhead Tunnel. Increased capacity prompted the start of a second tunnel alongside the first in 1847, and a century later, a third tunnel, seen in picture, was built to replace the two existing ones which are half hidden but next to the third tunnel which is the third longest tunnel in the country.
The railway line was closed for passenger services in 1970 and due to the declining coal traffic the freight service was also discontinued in 1981, ending 136 years of railway transport across the southern Pennines and the Upper Longdendale Valley. But it has all been well preserved, both tunnels and railway paths, recycled into a picturesque seven mile track alongside the reservoirs and then above the Woodhead Tunnel.
