page_title: Summit Tunnel
section_title: Incidents
hierarchical_section_title: Summit Tunnel / Incidents
caption_attribution_description: English: Summit Tunnel, North Portal
context_page_description: Summit Tunnel in England is one of the world's oldest railway tunnels. It was constructed between 1838 and 1841 by the Manchester and Leeds Railway Company to provide a direct line between Leeds and Manchester. When built, Summit Tunnel was the longest railway tunnel in the world.
  The tunnel, between Littleborough and Walsden near Todmorden, was bored beneath the Pennines, a natural obstruction to most forms of traffic. The tunnel is just over 1.6 miles long and carries two standard-gauge tracks in a single horseshoe-shaped tube, approximately 24 feet wide and 22 feet high. Summit Tunnel was designed by Thomas Longridge Gooch, assisted by Barnard Dickinson. Progress on its construction was slower than anticipated, largely because excavation was more difficult than anticipated. On 1 March 1841, Summit Tunnel was opened by Sir John Frederick Sigismund Smith; it had cost of £251,000 and 41 workers had died.
  On 20 December 1984, the Summit Tunnel fire occurred. No lives were lost and five months later, the tunnel reopened after repairs. The tunnel has remained in continuous use with little interruption since it opened.
context_section_description: The tunnel closed for the first eight months of 1985 following a fire that generated sufficient heat to vitrify sections of its outer brickwork. The build up of heat in the surrounding ground led to a 'false spring'; many plants produced flowers and buds as the warm soil triggered new growth. Damage to the tunnel lining was minimal which was attributed to heated gases from the fire escaping through the ventilation shafts. Restoration involved replacing 550 yards (500 m) of track and sleepers before it re-opened to traffic on 19 August 1985.
  On 28 December 2010, a passenger train travelling from Manchester to Leeds was derailed when it struck ice that had fallen onto the tracks from one of the ventilation shafts. The ice had built up during exceptionally cold weather and fell into the tunnel when it started to thaw. The train was the first to use the tunnel in three days as a result of a temporary break in services around Christmas. It collided with the tunnel wall, but remained upright and no injuries were reported.
caption: Public walkthrough of the Summit Tunnel days prior to its reopening to rail traffic, 17 August 1985
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