By Joe Patterson

For the benefit of the people who don’t know the Sheffield to Manchester line (it was more commonly referred to as The Woodhead Route). I will describe the road from the Sheffield Victoria Station.

On leaving No: 3 platform main line you passed Bridgehouses Goods Depot. Still climbing we passed the old Neepsend Motive Power shed which served the Great Central Railway and the L. N. E. R. for many years. We passed the Neepsend Gas Works and the remains of the Neepsend Station. On the left as we proceeded the climb we passed the Neepsend Power Station and its cooling towers, before a climb of one in one hundred and thirty two, which brings us to the Wadsley Bridge Station.

Fans used to alight at this station in years gone by to watch Sheffield Wednesday play football on their home ground.

Still climbing you then approached Beeley Woods and Oughtibridge. From here we leave the industrialised city of Sheffield behind us, and face a panorama of beautiful countryside.

You then wound your way to Deepcar, Wortley, Thurgoland tunnel and Barnsley Junction where there was a junction to Wath, Mexborough and Doncaster. Further on was Penistone Station with a junction for the main line to Huddersfield.

Penistone Station was situated in a dip, (many drivers have struggled to get their trains moving on a wet and greasy rail.) Engine crews were faced with a one in one hundred when leaving the station. Penistone was the first stop for the express trains after they left Sheffield Victoria Station, which was thirteen miles away. The running time allowed was only nineteen minutes (a very hard task.)

‘Browns’ the tractor makers had premises to the left of the station, but have long since disappeared like many other industries.

After a long pull to get away from Penistone Station the incline becomes a little less severe as we climb to Hazelhead. From here the surroundings are very bleak. The scene doesn’t change as we pass Bullhouse until we reach Dunford Bridge, and we reach our goal Woodhead Tunnel – nineteen miles from Sheffield. A short distance inside the tunnel the gradient changes to down hill and the fireman can relax, the hard work has been done.

These tunnels were three miles long and ran under Saddleworth and Howden Moors, which are about one thousand feet above sea level.

Leaving the confines of the wet, stinking sulphur filled tunnels we pass the small platform at Woodhead and the reservoir in the Longdendale Valley on our right.

Coasting downhill we pass through Crowden, Torside and Valehouse where the start of the sand drag was. (This was formed of rails in troughs of sand, to help trains that did not have enough braking power to hold them.) Hadfield was the end of the sand drag. As we approach Dinting the driver has to reduce the speed of the train, for the permanent caution over the viaduct. Dinting is well known because of the Steam Loco Centre.

The viaduct is one thousand four hundred forty-five foot long and it has a one hundred and twenty-one foot high structure which spanned Dinting Vale, carrying the line as far as Mottram where there was a busy gravity type marshalling yard making up trains for Liverpool and Manchester.

Still coasting we approach Godley Junction, the diversion for Stockport and Liverpool.

Leaving Godley we pass Newton and Hyde Junction into Guide Bridge. This was the first stop from Manchester for the east bound express trains. The small stations, Hyde, Fairfield and Gorton mainly provided a service to the outskirts of Manchester. Gorton was famous for its Locomotive Depot and the engineering works at Ashbury and Ardwick. From here we coasted into Manchester London Road. (Now Piccadilly)