Woodhead line

The Woodhead line was a railway line linking Sheffield, Penistone and Manchester in the north of England. The Manchester to Glossop/Hadfield section is still in operation. The track has been lifted on other sections and much of the trackbed now forms part of the Trans-Pennine Trail and National Cycle Route 62. A key feature of the route is the passage under the high moorlands of the northern Peak District through the Woodhead Tunnels. The line was electrified in 1953 and closed between Hadfield and Penist one in 1981. It was built by the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway with Joseph Locke as its engineer. The original eastern terminus of the line was at Bridgehouses railway station, which opened in 1845. It merged with the Sheffield and Lincolnshire Junction Railway, the Great Grimsby and Sheffield Junction Railway and the Grims by Docks Company to form the Manchester, Sheffield andincolnshire Railway (GCR) in 1897. Ownership passed to the LNER in 1923 and, finally, to British Railways Eastern Region in 1948.