CHRISTMAS is supposed to be a time of peace and goodwill to all men.

But not if you're living near the railway line at Winchester.

Noisy overnight engineering work is set to disrupt the sleep of residents. It will be carried out by Network Rail on the line north from Shawford and through Winchester.

The company has written to residents alerting them to the disruption, which will take place today and Boxing Day and overnight from Monday to Thursday for three months.

Network Rail admitted the work is noisy but say it is unlikely to be in the same location for more than a night or two.

The work involves ballast cleaning, which is carried out on the stones that support the track and sleepers. It is done to prevent the materials used in the ballast sticking together, making it like a lump of concrete which hinders drainage.

A High Output Ballast Cleaning Train will remove the ballast and replace it with fresh material. A second train called a Track Renewal System will take up old tracks and sleepers and replace them with new ones.

A spokesman for Network Rail, said: "Network Rail is sending two different factory trains to Hampshire over Christmas and onwards into 2016, to dig up and relay the railway north from Shawford and through Winchester.

"These trains are self-contained “workshops on wheels” designed to relay hundreds of metres of track and the ballast stone the tracks sit on in each shift.

"By using these trains we can keep the railway open at weekends and do the track renewals overnight when trains are not running.

"This will provide passengers with a more reliable and comfortable railway.

"The trains will be operating on Christmas Day and Boxing Day and then overnight Monday to Thursday.

"The overnight work will make some noise and we are alerting our lineside neighbours as it moves north up the railway.

"The nature of the trains is that they move along relatively swiftly and the noise will not stay in the same location for more than a night or two.”