Geograph - photograph every grid square

The locomotive has detached from the front of a passenger train and is backing towards the tunnel in order to return down the left track. The train will then go back through the tunnel to Cheddleton, Consall Forge and Kingsley and Froghall.

SJ9853 : Locomotive changing tracks at Cheddleton Tunnel #1, Staffordshire
SJ9853 : Locomotive changing tracks at Cheddleton Tunnel #2, Staffordshire
SJ9853 : Locomotive changing tracks at Cheddleton Tunnel #4, Staffordshire

The tunnel (south portal shown) south of Leekbrook Junction on the former North Staffordshire Railway is 581 yards (about 531 metres) in length. This branch was opened in 1849, but closed to passengers in 1965 and freight in 1988. The Churnet Valley Railway Company has been running steam trains between here, Cheddleton and later, Kingsley and Froghall, since 1996.

The route from Stoke to Caldon Low quarry closed for freight in 1988 (passengers in 1966), but the recently formed Moorland and City Railway Company has plans to re-open the line. Steam trains already use the section north-west beyond Leekbrook, to the near the quarry.