Curley Hall, Penistone
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Penistone
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DESCRIPTIONS TO BE APPLIED SHORTLY WOODHEAD ROUTE INFO: The Woodhead line was the Great Central railway route from Sheffield Victoria to Manchester Piccadilly. It has - well had - a claim to fame as the first electrified main line railway in the UK, when it went live in 1953. Unfortunately, due to the evils of Beeching, the passenger services ceased to be on January 5th, 1970...along with Victoria itself. Several small intermediate stations had already shut during the years up to its demise, with Neepsend, Wadsley Bridge, Oughtibridge, Deepcar and Wortley all having sold their last tickets by 1957. Wadsley Bridge remained partly open for football services until the mid 90s. The line continued as a major goods corridor for several years, although the wires went in 1981. Passenger DMUs from Sheffield to Huddersfield used the route until 1983, reversing and travelling through Victoria, before being route through Barnsley instead. An electrified branch from Wath near Rotherham brought coal trains up via Worsborough - this junctioned with the Barnsley-Huddersfield route near Oxspring. The GCR track was lifted, from north west of Deepcar, to Hadfield near Glossop, between 1985-86. A surviving single track from Sheffield branches off left towards Stocksbridge steel works. The trackbed from here continues as The Transpennine Trail today. This tranquil ten-and-a-half mile stretch passes west through Wortley, Thurgoland, Oxspring and Penistone where it junctions with the still current Sheffield/Barnsley-Huddersfield line. The Worsborough line was already lifted by 1981, and is now better known as the Dove Valley trail. Beyond Penistone the former GC line leaves to head on through Millhouse Green, Hazelhead and eventually Dunford Bridge where the closed Woodhead Tunnel cuts the path short. The climb up from Penistone was as steep as 1 in 100 and trains that travelled from the Wath line were push-pulled by up to two electric locomotives at each end. Cyclists and walkers with the strength to continue can climb the near vertical Windle Edge left out of Dunford and then trek over the Pennines to Woodhead Station where the track remerged into daylight. This six mile section onward to Hadfield continues as the Longendale Trail.
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Penistone memorial
Penistone
Disused Stations: Penistone Station
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