Was Summit Tunnel Necessary?
Constructing the tunnel cost 41 lives and cost more than the original estimate which begs the question as to whether it could have been avoided? In Littleborough it is the proximity of the proposed railway and the existing canal which provide the clues.
Whilst railway and canal are roughly the same level at Smithy Bridge, by Littleborough the railway is considerably higher but beyond Littleborough wharf, 2 locks brought railway and canal level again, so close that perhaps the canal transported materials for the railway’s construction. Further locks together with the canal hugging the higher ground meant that the railway would have had to radically increase the height of its embankment if it was to cross the canal to get through Summit Gap on its eastern side.
Looking at Summit today there appears little room for a railway line on the surface as all available space west of the River Roch in the narrowest part of the valley is occupied by housing. But that is to forget that when the railway was being planned the ‘new’ turnpike was only 10 or so years old and Sladen Wood Mill hadn’t been built. Ample room could have been created through diverting or straightening the River Roch. However, rising ground would remain an issue.
The most constricted space was between the Summit Inn and Deanhead, where road and canal were just a row of houses apart. Whilst the canal was a fixture, moving the road was possible but difficult and as explained earlier, the continuous locking of the canal made access to the land east of the canal extremely difficult. In the end it probably came down to the power of the then existing Steam engines and a reluctance of engineers to have long steep gradients even if mitigated by a cutting through Deanhead similar to the arrangement adopted near Clegg Hall already described.
See here for Industrial Railways
