Hadfield Derbyshire 7th May 2023

The end of the Line! And what a line it used to be!

The Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway, later MSLR/GCR/LNER/BR, Woodhead Route opened through Hadfield in 1845 and was a major trans-Pennine transport link for nearly 140 years. Approved by the LNER pre-war the line was finally electrified by BR at 1500 vDC in 1955. It was the most modern railway in Britain at the time but was unfortunately the only main line using 1.5 kVDC and this system was soon superseded by the later network standard of 25 kV AC.

When the infrastructure needed upgrading the decision was made to close the line instead and all traffic between Hadfield and Penistone ceased in 1981. The Manchester commuter lines were eventually upgraded to 25 kV AC and trains still run to Hadfield & Glossop via Dinting Junction. Interestingly the original 70-year old overhead structures have been reused...