 Ownership of the Trent & Mersey canal made the NSR the biggest canal owning railway with 130 miles ( 209 km ) of waterways owned . The T & M owned Rudyard Lake which the NSR made use of as a leisure complex , building a golf course , in 1905 , on land adjoining the lake . A further area of interest , again via ownership of the T & M , was the lease on Caldon Low quarries . Associated with the quarry was the 3 ft 6 in ( 1 @,@ 067 mm ) tramway that ran from the quarries to <unk> making the NSR the operator of lines of three different gauges . 
