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An Old-Fashioned Miscellany. The great thing about the modern digital camera is that it allows photographers, by and large, to forget about processing costs. When we first launched this Photo Gallery back in 1997, we would occasionally receive coverage of an entire line, e.g. if a processing company was offering two sets of prints for an extra pound, but more often than not the prints arrived in small numbers, meaning that the early gallery pages were rather a mish-mash of scenes – just like this one, in fact!

Above: An out-of-the-way viaduct at grid reference SU 454469 on the former Didcot, Newbury & Southampton Railway near Tufton, south of Whitchurch (Hants). The viaduct crosses the River Test but beneath it passes a public footpath which, north and south of the viaduct, runs alongside the old railway formation. 7th November 2015. (Brian Loughlin)

 
Above: This building is now called 'The Signal House', which isn't strictly correct because it's not a signal box but an old railway station; in this case, the former Midland Railway's station at Evesham, Worcs. Evesham retains a station on the still operational line from Oxford to Worcester, but once had two stations on two separate lines. The 'lost' line is the MR route form Ashchurch to King's Norton via Broom. 21st November 2015. (Rob Davidson)
 
Above: Climbing up the trackbed of the Liskeard & Caradon Railway, the stone sleepers or 'sets' which originally held the rails are clearly visible. Since the L&CR was horse-drawn, transverse sleepers could not be used because they would have fouled the horses' feet. The long, dark shadows make it obvious that this photograph was taken during one of the shorter months of the year. 13th November 2015. (Bob Spalding)
 
Above: Up on the moors around Caradon Hill and Cheesewring Quarry, it's a railway rambler's paradise with trackbeds all over the place and a number of old engine houses to add interest. Caradon Hill produced copper ore, while Cheesewring Quarry produced granite. The Liskeard & Caradon Railway, which can be followed for much of its route from Bodmin Moor to Moorswater, took these goods down to Moorswater where they were transshipped on to barges on the Liskeard & Looe Canal. In 1860, the canal company opened the Liskeard & Looe Railway, which took over this traffic, and remains open to this day – though for passengers only. 13th November 2015. (Bob Spalding)
 
Above: We reckon that a young family could have more fun up here than at Tintagel. These structures have actually had some remedial work done on them to preserve them into the future (see below). Looking at the wall in the right of the photograph, one could forgive a child for thinking that all this had medieval origins. 13th November 2015. (Bob Spalding)
 
Above: This is Holman's Shaft pumping engine (built ca. 1875), the most imposing engine house on the South Caradon Mine and now a scheduled ancient monument. A company called 'pdp Green Consulting Ltd' (sic) has stabilised the structure, even including oak lintels which were rough-sawn to make them appear broken. The company's website gives this account: 'It dominates Caradon Hill's southern slopes and is well known locally for having the "Man in the Mine" shaped collapse in its western wall. This collapse was due to the failure of the decayed timber lintels that supported the masonry over the various openings in the wall.' 13th November 2015. (Bob Spalding)
 
Above: There are places in post-industrial Cornwall which have an other-worldly look about them, and this scene with its long-abandoned chimney stacks is one of them. Another other-worldy place is the Poldice Valley south of Chacewater, with its disused copper and arsenic mines. It is a wonder that the directors of Dr. Who haven't used some of these sites as sets for their famous science fiction series. 13th November 2015. (Bob Spalding)
 
Above: On the face of it, this photograph doesn't appear to be of anything much, but look carefully under the trees and you will see an old trackbed, curving gently to the right. This is the view looking west from near Goathorn Farm along the course of Fayle's Tramway, which conveyed china clay from mines around Norden to Goathorn Pier (on Poole Harbour) until the early 1970s. The photographer can remember when, in July 1971, his parents' family car was flagged down at an ungated level crossing on the A351, the Wareham-Swanage road, so that one of Fayle's antiquated trains could rumble across the road on its way east to the pier. A year later, such scenes were part of history. 18th July 2015. (Jeff Vinter)