Maintenance machinery and method

A method comprising:

• lowering a sweeper assembly onto a railway track with the rails aligned with slots in a ramp section of the sweeper assembly, and flexible flaps extending from the sides of the slots to spring out underneath T tops of rails;
• activating a brush to sweep particulate matter from the railway track into the sweeper assembly and to a screw;
• rotating the screw to move the particulate matter in the sweeper assembly to a chute;
• collecting the particulate matter from the chute and urging through a transfer device using an initial blower;
• urging further the particulate matter in the transfer device to a repository end of the transfer device using a process blower;
• and
• receiving the particulate matter at a repository section, and thereby to remove at least some particulate matter from the railway track.

A vehicle system, comprising:

• a chassis supporting a boom arm, the boom arm supporting a transfer device and a sweeper assembly;
• and
• a propulsion system that is configured to propel the chassis along a route having rails;
• wherein
• an operator in a cab supported by the chassis can manipulate the boom arm and align slots on a bottom side of the sweeper assembly with the rails, can activate a brush of the sweeper assembly that can brush particulate matter from the route into the sweeper assembly to a screw, can activate the screw to move the particulate matter in the sweeper assembly to a chute, can
• activate one or both of an initial blower and a process blower to move the particulate matter from the chute through a transfer device to a repository section, and thereby to remove the particulate matter from the route.