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  PHOTO GALLERY GROUP 6
 
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Above: The genial ballast cruncher responsible for some of the photographs in our Photo Gallery and news pages is here revealed! This is Richard Lewis, cooling his feat in the waters of Red Lake, which is literally half way up Dartmoor – a long, hot walk on a June day. Red Lake was once served by a 3ft tramway from Bittaford, 8½ miles to the south on the edge of Devon's picturesque South Hams district. The tramway was opened in 1911 to carry away the china clay that was once excavated here, but closed in 1931 along with the industry. The trackbed is now a popular footpath and for much of its length forms part of the Two Moors Way. June 2004. (Mike Hodgson)
 

Left: Staying in the South Hams, this is the view looking out from Sorley Tunnel on the former GWR branch line from South Brent to Kingsbridge. Sorley is a 400 acre organic farm, which just happens to include part of an old railway line and this half mile tunnel. The enterprising owners have added to their farm a family adventure park, in which the old tunnel features as 'scary world' – allegedly with its own friendly ghost, 'Rory'. June 2004. (Richard Lewis)
 
Above: The last crossing of Nant Clydach on the Taff Vale Railway's Ynysybwl branch, north of Pontypridd. Sustrans is already at work on various sections of the branch, converting it into another leg of the extensive railway-based cycle network in south Wales. This should make use of this bridge rather less precarious in the future! Photographed in February 2004. (bob Prigg)
 
Above: Chatterley Whitfield Colliery, next to the North Staffordshire Railway's disused line from Milton Junction to Congleton, is the last remaining complete colliery in the UK. Although this photograph is not strictly of a disused railway, it does illustrate what can be discovered on the club's walks if you have an eye for industrial archaeology. The site is securely fenced off, with the local council undecided as to what to do with it. The pit had five pit shafts and was the most productive in the UK, employing 3,500 underground workers. After closure, it became a museum but was closed due to underground flooding in 1993; the whole site has laid derelict since. There are some rails and cross-overs located in the sidings in front of the buildings. A local told us that the authorities had reached stalemate with the site's future because of the vast amount of asbestos built into it, and the astronomical cost of removing it safely. Photographed in February 2004. (Bob Prigg)
 

Left: The Great Northern Railway's disused line from Eggington Junction to Derby Friargate (more commonly referred to as the Mickleover Branch) is now part of Route 54 on the National Cycle Network, as can be seen from this milepost. Although this line closed to passengers in 1939, it remained open for freight traffic and, more recently, was used as a test track by British Rail. This photograph was taken immediately north of the A516 near Etwall. (Bob Prigg)
 
Right: Walking underneath Oxcroft Junction, the point where a two mile branch to Oxcroft Colliery diverged from the disused line from Staveley Town (east of Chesterfield) to Cresswell (south west of Worksop). The construction of the bridges is reminiscent of the Great Central Railway, but both lines here were built by the Midland. (Bob Prigg)
 
Above: An amazing photograph. How old are these silver birch trees? These impassable lines are Seymour Junction Sidings, or Seymour Yard, next to the closed Seymour Colliery. Seymour Junction was the point at which the Midland Railway's lines from Staveley Town to Cresswell, and Staveley Town to Bolsover, diverged. (Bob Prigg)