By Roy Mallinson

The Sheffield to Manchester railroad ran through Deepcar in the Don valley from the completion and formal opening of the Woodhead tunnel in December 1845.

The line was named the Sheffield Ashton-under-Lyne & Manchester Railway which became an integral part of the Manchester Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway which changed it's name later to Great Central before becoming a component of LNER.

This line ran through the area for some 136 years until the last train through the Woodhead tunnel in July 1981 although Sheffield to Penistone traffic did use the line occasionally until 1983. From this time on the only traffic was from Nunnery to Deepcar to feed and despatch from the steelworks at Stocksbridge. The railway cutting just to the North of Deepcar was filled in to carry the somewhat accident prone Stocksbridge Bypass.

Other lines had also been used within the Don Valley. To my knowledge from the 1940's onwards there had been industrial steam locomotives at Lowoods refractories at Deepcar, Stocksbridge Railway Company running from Deepcar to Stocksbridge and some fourteen locomotives within the then busy steelworks.

Earlier the Sheffield Corporation had been seeking to build reservoirs to better supply the city and local areas with drinking water. The Corporation and Fox's came to an agreement in 1896 that an extension of Fox's railroad for some three and a half miles be produced for use by the Corporation. This passed under Underbank Lane and along beside the Stocksbridge to Flouch road crossing over two bridges near Midhopestones and finally under a bridge into the quarry by Langsett village. Work went on apace at two reservoirs in the area Langsett which was completed in October 1904 and Underbank which had its water level approaching maximum in May 1907

The only standard gauge locomotive on the site was a six wheeler saddle tank named LANGSETT built by Manning Wardle & Co. Ltd of Leeds. for Sheffield Corporation and later acquired by Fox's traffic department for shunting duties within the steelworks. Beyond the standard gauge system at Langsett' there was a narrow gauge track to the face working and to fully use this system 3ft Oins. engine called Little Don an 0-4-0 Peckett was purchased

The Sheffield Corporation then looked into the next little valley down the road' this was where Ewden Beck flowed into the River Don. In 1913 work was started to dam this valley at two points the upper point being to form the Broomhead dam while the lower dam would be More Hall the former being drinking water and the latter compensation water for users of the streams water.

The Corporation decided to build a community on site and to bring this about they built some forty buildings. Apart from the residential buildings there was a church a recreation hall a canteen and a shop. A number of these were still standing after the second World War. The 1914-18 war brought work on the dams to a stop and the men were taken over the GCR lines to Deepcar where they transferred on to the Paddy to travel to Fox's yard.

The run into Ewden Sidings was started close by Wharncliiffe Wood signal box where the long curve was on a 1 in 26 downward slope over the River Don by a girder bridge and forward over the Sheffield Manchester road by another girder bridge. the climb went right up to Ewden with the stream on its left side into Ewden sidings. There was a platform within the sidings and this enabled a coach to take children or shoppers to catch the bus to Stocksbridge or Sheffield.

In the early 1920's a special train composed of four Manchester Sheffield Lincolnshire coaches loaded up at the platform for a special day trip to Cleethorpes it is implied that another trip was run a year later to Southport. The work at Ewden as completed in 1929 and that was the end of the railway into that lovely valley.