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Other than the locked gates the tunnel entrances are still open at each end. This produces strong thermal currents through the tunnel and as the hot air rises above the cold air you can step up close to the Woodhead Station entrance and feel the dramatic drop in temperature as a cold breeze exits. Useful on a hot day. And to peer into the tunnel helps recall that in another time, yet not so long ago (1981), trains were tearing through the tunnel on their way to Yorkshire and Lancashire
And the tunnel is still in use. To avoid erecting electric pylons over the surrounding moorland, the tunnel offered an ideal way to carry electric cables. So 400,000 volts now hurtle through the tunnel and then above the Longendale Trail - nine inches of soot had to be removed from the walls before cables could be fixed to them. The tunnel is the third longest rail tunnel in England.
