Thurgoland Tunnel is a double bore abandoned railway tunnel between Penistone and Wortley.[1] Its total length is 924 feet (282 m). It was opened in 1845 on the Sheffield, Ashton-Under-Lyne and Manchester Railway between Manchester Store Street and Sheffield.
It is characterised by a curve of sixty chains radius on a falling gradient of 1 in 131. Because of the difficulties in laying it out, it consists of a series of straight sections in a series of erratic curves varying from 100 to 20 chains. Maximum clearance was only obtained by reducing the normal six-foot spacing between the tracks. Because of the clearance problems this caused for electrification, in 1948 a second single-line tunnel was built for the up line and the old tunnel thereafter only housed the down line. As this project was begun in 1947 just before nationalisation, the up tunnel portal hosts dual-dated keystones, inscribed "LNER 1947" and "BR 1948".[2] Electric working commenced in 1954 and ceased in 1981.
The tunnels ceased to carry trains in 1983 when the local Sheffield–Huddersfield train service was diverted via Barnsley.
The up tunnel, being much newer, has been re-utilised for a walking trail, whilst the down bore was backfilled and blocked off.[3]