Well it ended up being an extremely successful week, with a lot achieved.

We’ve installed a further 120 concretes, leaving only 68 (ish) to go to reach the bridge.

It was all pretty stock standard regular stuff, really getting very good at it, just in time to finish!

We took the opportunity of having the tamper on to attend to a few spots we’ve previously not been able to get to, however given the amount of rainfall and complete saturation of everything, we’ll be back at this once things dry out.

We gave the drain a bit of a scrape, mainly just to clear the debris as it wasn’t really much water. The roadway drain needs clearing out but that’ll be at a much dryer time.

The afternoon was spent at Muckleford dropping out a few concrete sleepers between the yard and Chapmans Lane. This is by no means a high priority, but getting at least one wagon empty to transport all our timber sleepers and other stuff back to Maldon is so to save double handling we’ve dropped them where they’ll be used.

Next week, we’ll likely have most of the sleepers in and clipped by Monday afternoon, as such on Tuesday we’ll be putting on a BBQ lunch at Muckleford for the gang, everyone on the civil team is welcome, just let us know for catering. For those that can’t make Tuesday, Thursday we’ll run a works train and we’ll add a carriage to give a bit extra.

Monday’s crew meeting Maldon 8am or on site from 8.30am

As we’d hoped, a break in the rain allowed us to insert another 40 sleepers, taking the weekly total up to 200.

At days end it all came up looking quite tidy. There is now less than 200 to go to get to the bridge!

Next week will be a bit hard as there are trains running on Tuesday and we’ve got a few other jobs to do however we might get 40 or 80 installed late next week.

The recent rain has seen the water level in Muckleford creek come up a bit, nothing too drastic but a good flow. A good bit of debris to clear up when things dry out too.

We had reports of a fallen tree over the track near Castlemaine, the reports implied it was a bit of a large one, thankfully this was all we had to contend with.

Check back on Sunday afternoon for details of workdays next week.

We’re getting close now… only 240 odd left to reach the bridge!

Some pics from before Tuesday’s workday show how much we achieved, with 160 inserted and clipped up so far this week. However with today’s rainfall we were reluctant to do any more until we know what tomorrow’s weather holds.

As past yesterday’s work we did have to shuffle a bit of rail to move some joints, this didn’t hold us up considerably thankfully, as in addition to Monday’s 40 sleepers, we comfortably inserted 120 and clipped up.

At close of play yesterday we were very proud of our efforts.

We’re hopeful of getting an additional 40 sleepers inserted tomorrow, getting our weekly total up to 200 and leaving only a full week’s worth to go to get to the bridge.

Meeting at Maldon at 8am, or on site from 8.30am, however only come in via Donkey Farm Track and the bike track as the recent rain will make the other ways impassable.

Tomorrow’s workday (Wednesday 13th) will go ahead, however it will most likely only be a half day strapping and transporting timber sleepers. If you have other pressing matters to take care of, we won’t be offended if you aren’t there!