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History: The line from Sheffield Victoria to Manchester London Road was once part of the Great Central railways main line from London Marylebone to Manchester. It was opened in 1845 by the Sheffield, Ashton under Lyne and Manchester Railway which later became the Sheffield and Lincolnshire and upon opening of their main line to London, The Great Central Railway. This route reached 1000ft above sea level at its summit over the Pennines and was a hard long haul for trains. The route was 41 1/2 miles long from Sheffield to Manchester.

The line was originally intended as a passenger route but its mainstay was coal from Sheffield and Wath upon Dearne, where there was a marshalling yard, up Worsbrough incline to Penistone. In fact this traffic was so heavy the LNER who took over from the GCR at grouping considered electrifying the route. Contracts were signed but WW2 got in the way and the plans were put on hold. When the plan for electrification did recommence it was under British Railways and they used the same plans that the LNER had started. It was to be at 1500Vdc power supplied by overhead line equipment as decreed by the Ministry of transport for all future electrification programmes after 1930.

Between the summit at Dunford bridge and Woodhead there are 3 tunnels, 2 single bores were completed in 1845 and 1852 for the original main line. It was also found that the twin tunnels between Woodhead at the western end and Dunford Bridge at the eastern end were too narrow and very unsuitable for electrification. These tunnels incidentally were known to train crews as the hell holes as they were a very narrow bore and became claustrophobic and sooty as trains passed through. So it was decided that a new single bore tunnel of 3 miles and 66 yards was to be built parallel to the earlier tunnels. The third tunnel was bored purposefully for the electrification of the route and not completed until 1953 allowing the older tunnels to be closed.

The new tunnel was opened by the then transport minister A.Lennox-Boyd on 3^rd June 1954. A 10 coach special train was hauled from Sheffield by a class B1 4-6-0 no.61154 but to take passengers through the tunnel from Dunford Bridge there was a 3 coach EMU. To allow for the new alignment through the tunnel Dunford Bridge station had been rebuilt with a new signal box. The cost of adding the new tunnel was 4.25 Million pounds resulting in costs being more than the original electrification price and also resulted in the system being late for opening. When the route did open for electric trains in 1954 it was 18 years after the original contracts had been signed and the system of electrification was becoming obviously outdated as new electrification programmes were planning to use 25kVac!!

The route: Until the 1960's the line was a major coal route needing to be able to take a high frequency freight traffic as well as passenger services. To allow faster running of both types of trains passing loops were laid to allow parallel running and the minimum of delay to either service. With the withdrawal of passenger services between Sheffield and Manchester in 1970 the loops were lifted. Thurlstone was one of the places that could be seen for many years to have had this layout as the OLE masts were sited for quadruple track though only two lines ran through them until closure of the line.

At Barnsley Junction the Barnsley to Penistone line used to join the Woodhead main line. The short section from Barnsley Junction to Huddersfield Junction was the only part of the central Woodhead route operating in 1987. The line from Barnsley has a 1 in 40 climb to the Woodhead trackbed and in 1988 it was in grave doubt whether the section would remain open as the West Yorks PTE was not willing to fund it.

At Penistone the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway had a built a link between the Woodhead route and Huddersfield on what is known as the Standege route which was Britain's busiest trans-Pennine route. The branch has 4 major stone viaducts at Paddock, Lockwood seen as the most impressive at 476 yards long and at one point 136 feet high, Denby Dale, this viaduct was originally built in wood but a 22 arch stone viaduct replaced it in 1884 and the 28 arch stone built Penistone.

Route traffic: Penistone station in 1965 was a busy place for different types of motive power and the enthusiast could regularly find diesel, steam and electric locomotion in the stations platforms. With introduction of the electric service passenger service times were reduced severally demonstrating how efficient the electric trains were in comparison to the steam hauled trains. EM1 Bo-Bo locomotives (later class 76) were purpose built for this work and they employed what is called reo-generative braking which means that when the locomotive is braking it generates power which it pushes back in to the overhead. Freight services were also speeded up being hauled by similar design locos to the EM1s but these were EM2 Co-Co (later class 77) locomotives that had a much higher tractive effort. The first locomotive built for the line at Gorton Works was shipped to Holland as there was a distinct shortage of locomotives there after the war. The Dutch named the loco Tommy and that remained its official name when it returned to BR service.

Passenger services started to have difficulty in using the line due to the heavy frequency of freight movements so they were diverted to other diesel hauled routes.  Not long after the withdrawal of the passenger services freight services also started to see a decline as quarries closed. In 1972 2 of the class 77 Co-Co locomotives that had become redundant were sold to the Netherlands where some still work today!! By the late 1970s the route was operating at only 1/3 of its capacity with freight services and the occasional special or diversion the latter of which were diesel hauled. With the loss of the passenger traffic in 1970 the line became a diversionary route with regular diversions taking place in the winter of 1980/81 when the Hope valley route was closed for Sunday engineering works. This diversion added an extra 20 minutes to journey times between Sheffield and Manchester due to the diesel locomotives having to run round their trains when they reached the former Great Central route at Nunnery junction. Despite poor ventilation in the Woodhead tunnel diesel locomotives and railcars were used. One class of locomotive that was a rare visitor to the route were class 50's even when they operated the West coast main line. However there was the occasional visit if one was on an excursion train. Perhaps stranger visitors were on 25^th October 1978 when class 40 046 hauled 2 ex LNER Pacific's via Huddersfield, Penistone and the Woodhead route. The engines were A2 no.532 'Blue Peter', and A4 no.19 'Bittern' to their new home at Dinting resulting in their being the last steam locomotives through the Woodhead tunnel.  In 1981 one of the services operated over the Woodhead route was a merry go round coal train to Fiddlers Ferry Power station. Near Wadsley bridge is Neepsend power station which was a regular customer of the railway taking in coal and had an extensive series of sidings for the handling of traffic. Wadsley bridge station was a very busy place especially for football supporters to Hillsborough football ground and had its own goods yard and shunter presumably to act as interchange sidings for the nearby power station.

Decline: With the amount of time it had taken for the construction of the OLE the line was no longer a main route between Sheffield and Manchester. In fact the line at Sheffield did not even connect directly to Sheffield Midland station without reversal. With closure of the ex GCR to London the Woodhead route started to look increasingly isolated from main line working. Some of the electrical equipment was also beginning to be life expired as well as out of date. The idea to upgrade the electrification of the line was put forward but as this would cost 44 million Pounds it was rapidly decided that the line was to close. Freight working ceased in 1981 causing public uproar that a line that had cost so much to upgrade and a tunnel costing so much to build and only be used for 27years was a waste of money. DMU services were provided because of this but they only went as far as Penistone though over the rest of the route all trains ceased. Even the Penistone trains were diverted in 1983 via Barnsley and I believe that freight only now operates between Sheffield and Deepcar. The last day of through traffic on the line was 17^th July 1981, though track lifting did not take place for another two years with the removal of OLE and fittings taking place shortly after closure. When the lifting started in the summer of 1983 it commenced at the Lancashire end of the tunnel but the whole of the route was not lifted until 1987. Much of the route does remain however and is used as a cycle and pathway over the Pennines. One of the original tunnels even has a narrow gauge line running through it for the maintenance of electricity cables that pass under the Pennines. The new tunnel however remains mothballed. The section west of Hadfield and the Glossop branch are still open but were converted to 25kV electrification and today forms part of the suburban rail network of Greater Manchester. In 1988 a single line remained open to serve a British Steel plant at Stocksbridge.

Decline: With the amount of time it had taken for the construction of the OLE the line was no longer a main route between Sheffield and Manchester. In fact the line at Sheffield did not even connect directly to Sheffield Midland station without reversal. With closure of the ex GCR to London the Woodhead route started to look increasingly isolated from main line working. Some of the electrical equipment was also beginning to be life expired as well as out of date. The idea to upgrade the electrification of the line was put forward but as this would cost 44 million  Pounds it was rapidly decided that the line was to close. Freight working ceased in 1981 causing public uproar that a line that had cost so much to upgrade and a tunnel costing so much to build and only be used for 27years was a waste of money. DMU services were provided because of this but they only went as far as Penistone though over the rest of the route all trains ceased. Even the Penistone trains were diverted in 1983 via Barnsley and I believe that freight only now operates between Sheffield and Deepcar. The last day of through traffic on the line was 17^th July 1981, though track lifting did not take place for another two years with the removal of OLE and fittings taking place shortly after closure. When the lifting started in the summer of 1983 it commenced at the Lancashire end of the tunnel but the whole of the route was not lifted until 1987.  Much of the route does remain however and is used as a cycle and pathway over the Pennines. One of the original tunnels even has a narrow gauge line running through it for the maintenance of electricity cables that pass under the Pennines. The new tunnel however remains mothballed. The section west of Hadfield and the Glossop branch are still open but were converted to 25kV electrification and today forms part of the suburban rail network of Greater Manchester. In 1988 a single line remained open to serve a British Steel plant at Stocksbridge.