The Woodhead Route - DVD
£19.49
Recommended retail price: £19.95
Stock type: -
Stock reference: 156.CP113
£19.49
Recommended retail price: £19.95
Stock type: -
Stock reference: 156.CP113
The Pennines presented a formidable obstacle to potential railway builders hoping to link the Manchester area with Sheffield. Many schemes were drawn up but few trans-Pennine lines were built to link Lancashire and Yorkshire. So it is little wonder that enthusiasts fondly remember the former Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MSLR) route via the summit at Woodhead.
The railway changed its name when it built an extension as far as London, and it became the Great Central Railway (GCR). Later it became part of the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER). The principal traffic was coal, and this remained true right up to closure in 1981.
Forty-one miles of line made up the Woodhead route. It was steam operated until the 1950s when electrification at 1500 volts DC was completed. The locomotives used on this route were unique in Britain, consisting of Bo-Bo electric locomotives of what was to become class 76 and the express passenger version, the Co-Co class 77.
Perhaps the best known part of the route is the famous Woodhead Tunnel. The original tunnel was two track, but capacity was doubled by the addition of a second two-track tunnel.
This archive film programme showcases trains on the route and is supplemented by footage from the 1970s and very early 1980s, when class 76 Bo-Bo electric locomotives based at Reddish depot were pre-eminent on freight trains.
Format: DVD
Film Type: Black & White and colour
Duration: 60 minutes
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