Heritage Tools for Trackside Clearance

There is a growing interest in using scythes in farming/land management.

Do any railways/volunteers use scythes or other traditional tools in trackside vegetation management instead of power tools and if so who and g=how do they find it?

 

Billhooks. No, really ..... a sight more manageable than doing a grim reaper impression in a steep sided cutting.

These folks will doubtless have some advise and quite likely someone close by with some pearls of wisdom:

https://www.hedgelaying.org.uk/

 

+1 for billhooks.

 

Billhooks to doing it this way! Why do you think flails and chainsaws were invented?

 

He wanted heritage. Flails and chainsaws yes will keep plants clear, but the remaining growth has simply been butchered. The difference between a well laid hedge and something attacked with power tools is stark. Of course, if nobody gives a rats .....

 

Flail mowing, as practiced by Network Rail contractors, leaves all the stumps smashed and ready to start growing again with multiple shoots, not one or two leader shoots.
It also leaves a lovely mulch of plant material which just encourages further growth.

Replanting an area with plants to blanket an area can be useful. Gorse is good for wildlife and regrows when flail mown as does broom.

Cheers, Neil

 

So more 'high speed pollarding', as it certainly ain't hedge laying (not the cheapest option, I'll grant you). I suppose hedge laying is a bit like PW, in that the bulk of attention comes at the start and end of life. Obviously, with a living system, regularly scheduled laying is way off an exact science, too much depends on both the range of planting and the soil conditions. I've seen plenty of hedges, three decades in, still looking perfectly healthy and providing the sort of protection you'd expecting from a well maintained fence.

Thing is, once the initial laying has happened, the mechanical trim is rather more effective. It's when that is applied to a hedge with the equivalent of alopecia (i.e. few weak spindly plants which happen to lie in a vague line) it's inappropriate. See just about any country lane you choose for proof!

 

Was traditional hedge-laying a technique used by railway companies, though? It doesn't seem to obvious in period railway photographs, although I have to confess to not having looked particularly closely.

 

Honestly uncertain too. The first time I was aware such a thing existed was courtesy of a photo in Tom Rolt's 'Railway Adventure', where laying was underway near Fach Goch Halt, so clearly in some places. For the rest, depends on where you're talking about, of course. Ffestiniog uses dry stone walling for the most part, the Corris, slate slabs hung on wire, the RH&D a mix of other peoples' rear garden fences and fresh air (more fences than fresh air these days), with post and wire alongside survivingg fields between Burmarsh Road and New Romney. A few rack railways go for the 'sheer drop' option, but that's not open to all.

Photos of old lines between the bare embankment and cutting sides, just after the contractors have gone and the luxuriant growth once the groundskeeping budget had gone the same way as BR steam will need to be re-perused.

One thing I have noticed is more pro-active land management generally these days. On both the FfR and VoR, considerable effort has gone into opening up vistas which had been invisible from trains for decades. When I first knew those two lines, the trains ran a fair way through a green tunnel. TBH, it was only seeing the opening credits on the FfR 'Moving Pictures' videos which gives away how close to the top of the ridges separating the line from the old Croesor Tramway actually are.

I will point out though, that our friends in the waterways movement seem to be a ways ahead of us, when it comes to the environment through which they run (there are a fair few notable exceptions) and in several cases, the likes of hedgelaying teams are one of those things which attracts it's own volunteer base. Just as there'll be those with a penchant for S&T work, who mightn't set foot in a workshop from one decade to the next, it's an area where the potential for wider inclusivity exists.

 

You called “S&T” here

speaking of how we do things now as opposed to then, I t3 d to use a forty foot roller pole for painting signals with only the very last bit at the top done by hand, about an hour sees a post done,saves all that faffing about with scaffolding or ladders, you get more done in less time too, good on wooden square or round metal posts either way, also good for painting signalboxes when you know how

 

Like this, you mean?



Tom

 

Thanks

I will have to see if I can persuade my youngest brother to swap his Gyrocopter for a Helicopter

 

That thing is the stuff of nightmares in the wrong hands!

 

Ahh, the traditional old helicopter suspended death wazzer..... ;-)

 

Perhaps even in the right hands!

 

Shades of James Bond.

Which film was it when they used this?

 

The world is not enough