lineside fact

Thanks to Nick Howes for the following -

Amazing pre Marples fact 1:

Did you know that in steam days there were 55,000 men on the pway and 50000 track miles (20000 route)

That means that one man had a mile of track, associated cess embankment, civil work to maintain each year

1 mile =5280 feet in 52 weeks
100 foot per week
That’s fifteen feet per man length per day.

No wonder our pway was so immaculate…………….

double vision

Some more shots from Mick Knox taken at the start of the week. The first and last really show off the quality of the double track section, it's really starting to look like authentic S&D trackwork. With Mick's determination to get the cuttings looking as neat as possible the authenticity should become a permanent feature. This is also a testament to the superb work and vision of the track gang.

strimmed ...

Before and after shots from Mick Knox after he'd attacked the down cutting with the strimmer on Monday and Tuesday this week.

strimmer attack

(Copyright 2008 Mick Knox)

One of our unsung heroes is Mick Knox, who comes down several times a year to give the lineside a serious strimming. These before and after photos are from the 19 February.

One of the features of the S&D was its neat cuttings and embankments. When trains are running again hopefully lineside fires will do some of Mick's work for him! As the line expands then more and more of this sort of rewarding work will need to be done. I can't imagine a better way of spending a summer's day than cutting back the undergrowth alongside the S&D - with champagne and strawberries to hand of course ...