All the work of the Lineside Clearance is done by a small team who like nothing better than taking an overgrown wilderness and turning it into something altogether more pleasant to look upon.

Normally this is helping the operation of the railway by allowing the train crew to have a clear sight of the track ahead or see signals from a safe distance.

Sometimes we need to clear fence lines for others to keep our boundary fences in good repair or clean out a culvert so that the brickwork can be repaired.

The railway currently has 10 miles of operational track from Hunting Butts tunnel to the viaduct at Toddington, this equates to 20 miles of lineside, to keep clear and maintain which gives plenty of work for everyone.
 
Currently we are working at Middle Stanley and in the first picture, taken at the end of May, we have got started on some fairly major blackthorn bushes.

The trees at the top of the embankment are becoming a danger to anyone leaning out of the windows of the passing trains and although the railway company employs a rail-mounted flail each November to keep the line clear, this area has become too dense for it to make any real impression.

After six weeks of work, with our small team, the eastern end has been completed and the second photo, taken in the middle of July 2009, shows the completion of the eastern end.

The team meet every Saturday from 9.30am, throughout the year, but occasionally we are beaten by the rain.

We also have a photo gallery on our website showing all aspects of our progress on clearing the embankments over the last four years and a map of where we are working each week.