RAIL employees based in Salisbury who have raised over £25,000 for charity will be completing their tenth and final fundraising walk this month.

The tRAILblazers group was established in 2009, made up of employees from Network Rail and South West Trains, as well as retired colleagues and friends, and they have been ‘Walking the ACE’ for charity ever since.

The ACE, or the Atlantic Coast Express, was a line running between London Waterloo and seaside towns throughout the south west.

The last train for this service was in 1964, but the group have been walking sections of the route each year to raise money for various charities which had helped colleagues or friends.

In 2009, the first walk (from Salisbury to Gillingham) raised £2,300 for the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham.

The group walked from Chard to Feniton in 2012 (raising £2,973.50 for Salisbury Hospice), from Feniton to Exeter in the same year (raising £1,410 for the Salisbury branch of the MS Society) as well as six other walks, raising a grand total of £25,516.

The final walk, on September 30, will be from Braunton to Ilfracombe (about ten miles) in aid of Julia’s house.

As well as the walk, John Say, a signaller for Network Rail, is planning to have his hair cut for the charity at Salisbury station sometime this month, after growing it for the last few years.

John is one of only three members who have completed every walk on the trail, and he was responsible for starting the fundraising.

He said: “I’m sure I will find the experience emotional but knowing that I’m doing this for such a worthy cause means that I am happy to sacrifice my locks.”

One of the founding members Matthew Hurst said: “We will have reached our goal of walking from Salisbury to the Atlantic coast.

"Will this be the end? Where do we go from here? That is something we will have to sit down and have a chat about over a nice, well-earned pint.”

Chris Pelling, a South West Trains Driver based in Salisbury, and route planner for the group, said: “It’s been good fun. We’ve had hot sunny weather and heavy rain over the years.

“But our spirits have been high and we hope to do more walks over the coming years, possibly towards London to complete the route of the Atlantic Coast Express, whose route we have followed west of Salisbury.”

Visit justgiving.com/fundraising/tRAILblazersWalkTheACE.