Cowburn Tunnel

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The Cowburn Tunnel is a railway tunnel at the western end of the Vale of Edale in the Derbyshire Peak District in the English Midlands.

The tunnel is 3,702 yards (3,385 m) long. It was built in 1891 by the Midland Railway, under Colborne (part of a 1,700 ft (520 m) moorland between Kinder Scout and Rushup Edge). It takes the Hope Valley Line west out of Edale valley, to emerge near Chinley.

Unusually, the tunnel is not built at a constant gradient: in fact, the summit of the line between Dore and Chinley lies within the tunnel, about a quarter of the way from the eastern end. From the summit, the tunnel falls at 1 in 100 eastwards and 1 in 150 westwards. Nevertheless, when the headings met, they were no more than an inch (25mm) out of line in the vertical direction, and met exactly in the horizontal direction. Only one vertical shaft was used. Although the workings were much drier than they had been for Totley Tunnel, on one occasion the headings filled with water to a depth of ninety feet (30m) and work was carried on in a diving bell.

In the 1970s this rail route was controversially given precedence over the more modern Woodhead route (which had then only recently been re-engineered and electrified), as the preferred passenger route between Manchester and Sheffield.