Hi

Whilst travelling back home, from the 2FS Expo 2013 in Wallingford Oxon., I looked out of the train window, and what I saw started me thinking.

Of course railways exist in a landscape, but many modellers build their models as if there are no significant vegetation between the boundary fence and the track. Pre 1985 that might have been more true, up to then the railway had kept their cutting and embankment etc. maintained as a grassy sward. This to prevent the exhaust from steam trains catching the vegetation fire. They cut the grass with scythes, grass cutting was one of the tasks carried out by permanent way staff.

Post 1968 there were no steam trains, on the network, at least run by BR. There was a need to cut costs and so the vegetation management is let go. BR put a brave face on it, saying they were creating a liner nature reserve alongside their tracks.

Then came the great storm of 1986, when many lines were blocked by fallen trees. As a result they changed track again, they started to clear fell areas which they considered to be vulnerable to tree fall. They went too far in the opposite direction, and they had embankment and cutting wall falls, blocking lines and costing millions of

pounds.

So now in the 2000's the situation has settled down, some areas are clear felled, but most of the track side estate is left to go wild. This can of course cause to farmers and householders as weeds from the railway know no boundaries.

When you look over the railway boundary, or towards it, you will often be looking through a screen of trees, towards the trains. What are sometimes preferred to as a green corridor.

Below is a map showing the locations at which the photographs were taken.

There are of course examples on preserve railways, such as the Mid Hants in the Ropley area, where a long stretch has be restored to how it would have looked pre-grouping.

Lisa