Inside the 'moving factory' that will cut HS2 through the Chilterns

With protesters camped nearby, two giant 170m machines are being assembled

In a decade's time, passengers on the new high-speed trains hurtling out of London will get just a burst of daylight and a glimpse of the Colne Valley landscape before disappearing back underground through the Chiltern Hills.

Today, in that three-mile stretch between future tunnel openings to the north-west of the capital, the 98bn HS2 project's scale, engineering might and cost are all evident: both at the vast work site scooped out beside the M25 in Buckinghamshire, and in nearby waters and woods where protesters are still encamped to stop machines coming through.