Woodhead Tunnel, South Yorkshire

Good things come to those who wait...

The Woodhead Tunnels are three parallel trans-Pennine 3-mile long railway tunnels on the Woodhead Line, a former major rail link from Manchester to Sheffield in Northern England.

The western portals of the tunnels are at Woodhead in Derbyshire and the eastern portals are at Dunford Bridge, near Penistone, South Yorkshire.

The first of the earlier twin tunnels (Woodhead 1 and 2) were completed by the Sheffield, Ashton-Under-Lyne and Manchester Railway in 1845, engineered by Charles Vignoles and Joseph Locke.

Woodhead 1 was at the time of completion in 1845 one of the world's longest railway tunnels at a length of 3 miles 13 yards (4,840 m).

It was the first of several trans-Pennine tunnels including the Standedge and Totley tunnels, which are only slightly longer.

Woodhead 2 was completed in 1853 and Woodhead 3 opened almost exactly 100 years later in 1953. Passenger services ended in 1970 and the last train passed through in 1981.

The tunnels are currently owned by National Grid plc who initially installed High-voltage cables in the disused Victorian railway tunnels in the 1960s.

Bringing new electricity supplies to the Manchester area from power stations east of the Pennines

Woodhead 3

The first two tunnels were replaced by Woodhead 3 which was bored purposely for the electrification of the route and was completed in 1953.

The tunnel was opened by the then transport minister Alan Lennox-Boyd on 3 June 1954. It was designed by Sir William Halcrow & Partners.

This was electrified at 1,500V DC in a project known as the Manchester-Sheffield-Wath electrification.

In the 1960s, it was proposed that this tunnel should be used as part of a Manchester to Sheffield motorway, but, in the end, only a short section of the M67 motorway was built.

The Woodhead Tunnel cables now form part of the 400,000-volt transmission system, which runs between National Grid's substations at Stalybridge, east of Manchester and Thorpe Marsh, near Doncaster.

It is not possible to install new electricity cables alongside the existing cables in the Victorian tunnels.

Infrastructure isn't to be fucked with, this place is no exception, over the past 12 months we've had a number of close calls.

Myself & Stepping Lightly had been onto this for a good while now, covering every angle or so we thought.

Intent on gaining access I recently braved the snow & ice on one leg & crutches, but it wasn't to be :(

The amount of copper wire for the taking here alone is immense and equally the security that follows.

Ultimately we knew despite the setbacks we would one day nail the 3 mile walk between Woodhead & Dunford Bridge.

Not to be defeated we spent the past 6 months scratching our bollocks before deciding to hit it up once more, failure wasn't an option.

'Enter the theatre of conflict'

'Mono-Rail'

'Ventshaft' - Behind sealed door :(

'Halfway'- 4900M Mooch

'400,000 Volts'