#365daysofbiking The trains don’t run here anymore:

September 7th – The weather was still grey and unpleasant, cold with a sharpening wind and summer seemed a long way behind me. But I felt like a bit of an explore on the way home so I hopped up onto the old South Staffordshire Railway that carried freight when I was a kid.

Carefully restored and maintained by Back the Track as a cycling and walking greenway, it’s peaceful up there and as Vivian Stanshall put it, you’re nestling in green nowhere.

There are good views of the canal, Clayhanger Marsh and Ryders Mere, and plenty of birds and wildlife to spot.

It’s also home to one of the most mournful monuments to a lost railway I know: The solitary remaining signal post of Norton Junction.

Still, the ladder makes a great vantage point for photographing the marsh…