UK Railways

Maintenance underway atop a signal post at Peak Forest.

Evening light as 66538 & 66741 cross at Manchester Oxford Road Station whilst working container services from and to Trafford Park. Three of these services passed within five minutes during a short gap in the intensive passenger services on this overcrowded section of line.

There are two ways to get to Chester by rail from Liverpool. You can use Merseyrail and head under the river and then via Birkenhead and Hooton or you can catch a Transport for Wales service from Lime Street Station. The route is via Liverpool South Parkway and Runcorn. A pair of class 153 units waits to depart Lime Street for Chester with 153 318 at the rear.

Stockport viaduct with 66614 at the head of 6H43 - Brindle Heath Up Sidings to Tunstead empty stone hoppers.

150104 arrives amidst the weeds at Middlewood with a service to Buxton. There have been changes at this remote station recently. There are now live information signs on both platforms and a plethora of cameras. Sadly you still can't buy a ticket here and whilst the service is two trains an hour each way only one every two hours stops. It used to be hourly but the Department for Transport has decreed that the locals don't need this any more.

A Cross Country service with 221141 heads for Manchester across Stockport viaduct whilst 158889 approaches with an East Midlands train for Nottingham.

46447 takes a rake of milk tanks towards Mendip Vale during a 30742 Charters event on the East Somerset Railway.

46447 passes through Merryfield Lane Halt on the East Somerset Railway with a train of milk tanks.

It's hard to catch a glint on a weathered locomotive. 46447 heads away from Cranmore on the East Somerset Railway with the milk tanks.

Standard class 4 No.75014 posing as Stoke based 75035 climbs towards Apesford Crossing on the Caldon Low line of the Churnet Valley Railway.

The western exit to the Caldon Low tramway tunnel is impassable due to flooding. This was the fourth line to be built connecting the Caldon Low limestone quarries with the canal and limekilns at Froghall. It operated as a series of self-acting inclined planes and was 3ft 6ins gauge. Closure came in 1920.

As the light fades a northbound London Northwestern service crosses Dutton Viaduct over the River Weaver.

Palmerston and Prince hustle a train of slate empties through the station at Minffordd on the Ffestiniog Railway.

46447 passes Cranmore signal box on the East Somerset Railway with the milk tanks charter.

When the 3.54 mile Totley Tunnel was being built for the Midland Railway between 1888 and 1893 the Duke of Rutland refused permission for more than one excavation and ventilation shaft to be dug on his land. Four shafts were initially sunk, all fairly close together at the Totley end, but after the line opened a fifth ventilation shaft was deemed necessary. Despite the Duke's previous objections this shaft was sunk from the Totley moors at a surface height of around 1250 feet. This shaft had to be sunk to the side of the existing tunnel and then connected to it at the side. The mounds of spoil associated with the sinking along with the circular engineering brick wall around the top can be seen from quite a distance away across the moors. Considerable quantities of water enter the shaft and when a train approaches the cross tunnel the air pressure is enough to force some water back up and out of the top, showering the area around with man-made rain.

A new class 777 emu waits at the Ormskirk terminus of Merseyrail services with a service for Liverpool Central. Services to Preston run from the other side of the bufferstop in the background.

Cranmore station on the East Somerset Railway as 46447 passes with the milk tanks.

The GWR Society's steam railcar waits to depart from Froghall towards Oakamoor on the Churnet Valley Railway.