The Blea Moor Tunnel is a 2,629 yd (2,404 m) railway tunnel that is between Ribblehead Viaduct

Ribblehead Viaduct

Ribblehead Viaduct is a railway viaduct across the valley of the River Ribble at Ribblehead, in North Yorkshire, northern England. The viaduct is a Grade II* listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument.-Description:...

 and Dent railway station

Dent railway station

Dent railway station serves the villages of Cowgill and Dent in Cumbria, England. It is operated by Northern Rail who provide all passenger train services....

 in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is the longest tunnel on the Settle-Carlisle Line, being almost twice as long as the second longest tunnel, Rise Hill Tunnel. Built by the Midland Railway

Midland Railway

The Midland Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 to 1922, when it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway....

, it took more than four years to complete, passes some 500 feet below the moor after which it was named and was built with the aid of seven separate construction shafts sunk from the moor above. This permitted no fewer than sixteen separate gangs of workers to be used during construction (one from each open end and two from the foot of each of the shafts) . Four of these were subsequently filled in but three were retained for ventilation purposes and are still used as such today (one of them suffered from a serious ice accumulation problem during the severe winter of 2010, as can be seen here: http://railwayeye.blogspot.com/2010/01/ice-to-see-you-to-see-you-ice.html). At one point of the track's history, steam locomotive

Steam locomotive

A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...

s were tested for their worthiness by driving them through this tunnel.

Traffic

Any train that goes the full length of the Settle & Carlisle line go through the Blea Moor Tunnel. This includes passenger trains, all run by Northern Rail

Northern Rail

Northern Rail is a British train operating company that has operated local passenger services in Northern England since 2004. Northern Rail's owner, Serco-Abellio, is a consortium formed of Abellio and Serco, an international operator of public transport systems...

, and the many freight trains.

Train simulators

You can go through the Blea Moor Tunnel either with Microsoft Train Simulator

Microsoft Train Simulator

Microsoft Train Simulator is a train simulator for Microsoft Windows, released in July 2001 and developed by UK based Kuju Entertainment, and is available for purchase through Amazon.com.-Gameplay:...

 or with Trainz

Trainz

Trainz is a series of 3D train simulator computer games developed by Australian game developer N3V Games . First released in 2001, the series has a large online community that creates and shares user-created content. The game has been released in several versions, including localized versions...

Classics 3.

Location

• Southern portal: 54.2319°N 2.3673°W
• Northern portal: 54.2497°N 2.3465°W