Following on from our big week last week, we’ll be taking a short break this week as we get on top of a few other tasks – please enjoy a week of rest.
We’ve made it to the Bridge!
We’re there – after many years of progressively replacing all timber sleepers between Maldon and Muckleford – we’ve finally completed the 100% concrete sleeper replacement! (With the exception of the Bridge)
To celebrate we held a BBQ on Muckleford Platform on Tuesday after the final sleeper was clipped up.
Thursday (tomorrow) we’ll be running a works train, departing Castlemaine station at 10am for the purpose of collecting all timber sleepers out beside the track – all being well it should be back in Castlemaine by 2/3pm (ish). All civil volunteers are welcome to attend, either joining the train or we’ll be meeting at Maldon from 9am.
Tuesday 1st September 2026 marked the end of a project that began way back in September 2018 with the re-building of Donkey Farm Track Crossing using Full Depth Concrete Sleepers.
The use of Full Depth Concrete Sleepers came about as a result of what was being released by the Level Crossing Removals around Melbourne. Being full depth concrete, we did needed to install these ‘in a face’ (100%) as interspersing them with timber was not practical (given the sleeper height differences). As such, we progressively worked through all the worst areas (poorest timber), replacing all timber sleepers with concrete.
Below is a timeline of the program which has seen approx. 9330 full depth concrete sleepers installed into the track between Maldon and Muckleford.
| Date | Location | Quantity | Sleeper Type |
| September 2018 | Donkey Farm Trk Xing Rebuild with First use of Full Depth Conc. | 30 (approx) | E Clip Full Profile |
| March 2021 | Maldon Lockwood Rd Crossing Rebuild (Full Depth) | 40 (approx) | E Clip Full Profile |
| April to Sept 2021 | Re-sleeper Curve 21 | 668 | |
| Dedicated effort to mass replace began Monday 4th March 2024 | Curve 20 heading in Up direction. | From March to end of June 2024 Weekday train services were suspended to complete as much re-sleepering as possible. | |
| 18th April 2024 | Completed to Pipeline Crossing | 2269 | (VR Type Sleepers) |
| Re-railed Winters Flat Bridge in Late April/May and Complete all Detailed Bridge Inspections | |||
| 21st May 2024 | Begin Resleepering at C22 (Maldon) | ||
| 24th May 2024 | Complete C22 | 292 | (VR Type Sleepers) |
| 27/28th May 2024 | Resleepering Between C21 & Bendigo Road | 176 | (VR Type Sleepers) |
| 29th/30th May 2024 | Resleepering Up side Bendigo Road | 180 | (VR Type Sleepers) |
| 3rd/4th June 2024 | Resleepering Up side Bendigo Road | 188 | E/Fastclip |
| 6th to 14th June 2024 | Resleeper T21-22 (Straight approaching Maldon) | 401 | (VR Type Sleepers) |
| 22nd/23rd Aug 2024 | Resleepering T20-21 | 160 | E/Fastclip |
| 27th to 30th Aug 2024 | Rebuild Woodlocks Ln | 52 | E Clip Full Profile / VR |
| 17th to 20th Sept 2024 | Resleepering T20-21 | 120 | E/Fastclip |
| 10th Oct 2024 | Resleepering T20-21 | 80 | E/Fastclip |
| 14th/15th Nov 2024 | Resleepering T20-21 | 149 | E/Fastclip |
| 26th to 29th Nov 2024 | Resleepering T20-21 | 219 | E/Fastclip |
| 5th to 10th Dec 2024 | Resleepering T20-21 | 320 | E/Fastclip |
| 17th March 2025 | Re-sleeper Pipeline Xing with Full Profile Sleepers and continue in Down Direction | ||
| 3rd July 2025 | Complete Resleepering to Donkey Farm Track | 1908 | E/Fastclip |
| 9th Sept 2025 | Begin Resleepering Chapmans Lane in Down direction | ||
| 13th Nov 2025 | Complete Resleepering to Up Side Muck Creek Bridge | 721 | E/Fastclip |
| 9th June 2026 | Begin Resleepering Donkey Farm Track in UP direction | ||
| 1st Sept 2026 | Complete Resleepering to Muckleford Creek Bridge | 1358 | (AN Gauge Conv./VR Type Sleepers) |
| Total | 9331 |
It’s been a massive project! The results are amazing, with track that is now safe, solid and generally in much better condition that it was previously. Obviously resleepering is only the first step in the overall upgrade of the track, with ballast, tamping and improved drainage all required before we could call it complete, however it’s the most critical part of the process and the one that was the most likely to become a crippling burden if we didn’t resolve it.
Going forward, there are still over 6000 timber sleepers to replace between Muckleford and Castlemaine, much maintenance to do on the bridges and lots of turnout, yard and general infrastructure maintenance to complete so we’re far from putting our feet up, however it’ll be a lot more programmed and cyclical now as we head towards less capital works and more maintenance – a position we’ve dreamed about being in for many decades.
Some pics from the last few days:
Monday saw us do the necessary lifting of the track as required, we did this not by doing a uniform lift but by gradually reducing the lift to prevent a hump off the bridge. We’ve also dropped back to low profile sleepers close to the bridge to reduce the track bed disturbance.
The last clips were pulled on just after morning tea yesterday!
That was followed by a big clean up, sleeper bundling, tool loading etc…
Ready for Thursday’s crew to collect the timber sleepers.
What an amazing effort and a massive congratulations to everyone involved.
Concretes
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
Sleepers
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.
VGR Civil Blog 