The Summit Tunnel fire occurred on 20 December 1984, when a dangerous goods train caught fire while passing through the Summit Tunnel on the railway line between Littleborough and Todmorden on the Greater Manchester/West Yorkshire border, England. Background The tunnel, which is in length, was built in 1840–41. Twelve of the fourteen construction shafts were left open to help vent smoke and steam from the locomotives that passed through it. The incident was one of a series of British railway accidents during 1984, coming only days after the fatal collision between an express passenger train and a train of fuel oil tankers at Eccles, Greater Manchester on 4 December. One day earlier on 3 December a train guard had been killed after a collision between a diesel multiple unit and parcels vans at Longsight also in Manchester. This third serious railway accident in the North West of England in less than three weeks led the Littleborough and Saddleworth MP Geoffrey Dickens to call for an inquiry into railway safety, in particular with respect to the conveyance of dangerous chemicals such as those involved in the accidents at Eccles and Summit Tunnel. Fire The train involved was the 01:40 freight train from Haverton Hill, Teesside to oil distribution terminal near Warrington. It was formed by class 47 diesel locomotive 47 125 and thirteen tankers. At 05:50 on 20 December 1984, the train, carrying more than () of four-star petrol in thirteen tankers, entered the tunnel on the Yorkshire (north) side traveling at . One-third of the way through the tunnel, a defective axle bearing (journal bearing) derailed the fourth tanker, which caused the derailment of those behind. Only the locomotive and the first three tankers remained on the rails. One of the derailed tankers fell on its side and began to leak petrol into the tunnel. Vapour from the leaking petrol was probably ignited by the damaged axle box. The three train crew members could see fire spreading through the ballast beneath the other track in the tunnel, so they left the train and ran the remaining mile to the south portal (where they knew there was a direct telephone connection to the signalman) to raise the alarm. Crews from Greater Manchester Fire Brigade and West Yorkshire Fire Brigade quickly attended the scene. Co-ordination between the brigades appears to have worked well, perhaps because they had both participated in an emergency