Bradway Tunnel

4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)

Bradway Tunnel, 1 mile 266 yards (1.853 km) long,^[1] was built in 1870 about 1-mile (1.6 km) north of Dronfield, Derbyshire, in South Yorkshire, England.^[2]

It is at the summit of the Midland Main Line between Chesterfield and Sheffield, on what is known to railwaymen as the "New Road" built by the Midland Railway to serve Sheffield, which was bypassed by the North Midland Railway's "Old Road" due to the gradients involved. During its excavation a number of small heading tunnels were needed to drain some 16,000 gallons of water an hour.^[3]

At the north end is the triangular junction with the Hope Valley Line and Dore & Totley station.^[4] Northwards the line proceeds down a 1 in 110 gradient,^[5] through the abandoned Beauchief, Millhouses & Ecclesall and Heeley stations, into Sheffield station.^[6]

North western portal: 53°19′19″N 1°30′35″W / 53.32194°N 1.50972°W / 53.32194; -1.50972
South eastern portal: 53°18′45.3″N 1°29′11.6″W / 53.312583°N 1.486556°W / 53.312583; -1.486556

References

^ Body, Geoffrey (1986). Railways of the Eastern Region. Vol. 1, Southern operating area. Wellingborough: Stephens. p. 30. ISBN 0850597129.
^ Stretton, Clement Edwin (1901). The history of the Midland railway. London: Methuen & Co. p. 193. OCLC 1037519916.
^ Williams, Frederick Smeeton (1877). The Midland railway: its rise and progress. London: Bemrose & Co. p. 443. OCLC 58755225.
^ Padgett, David (2016). Brailsford, Martyn (ed.). Railway track diagrams. Book 2, Eastern (4 ed.). Frome: Trackmaps. 27. ISBN 978-0-9549866-8-1.
^ Joy, David (1984). South and West Yorkshire : (the industrial West Riding) (2 ed.). Newton Abbot: David St John Thomas. p. 169. ISBN 0-946537-11-9.
^ Young, Alan (2015). Lost stations of Yorkshire; the West Riding. Kettering: Silver Link. pp. 66–67. ISBN 978-1-85794-438-9.