Description:British Railways 'Black Five' 4-6-0 locomotive number 45045 prepares to meet a rake of coaches at Leek railway station.
Together, they will form a service bound for Llandudno in North Wales - a long-standing holiday destination for people in Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire.
A long procession of 'hoppers' (mineral wagons) stands in the adjacent siding.
Although passenger services ended on this line during the 1960s, regular mineral traffic provided a stay-of-execution until 1988.
Nowadays, a section of the line through the Churnet Valley operates as a heritage railway and visitor attraction.
This image is included by kind permission of the Churnet Valley Railway.