It was a big day today…. We have been successful in our efforts to secure $500,000 from the state government for the redevelopment of the Castlemaine locomotive and carriage shed precinct!! A massive bonus for the railway. – Check out the Press Release
All the details will come out in due course so keep an eye on the VGR website for the details.
A special train was run from Castlemaine Station down to the turntable for the announcment. During all the excitement of the announcement, the gang ceased their duties of boxing up to enjoy a cuppa. Here John and Ian enjoy the shade while the special train simmers in the background.
Although very exciting, the gang didn’t let the news prevent works occurring. The day began with some boxing up and removal of excess fill from against the platform edge. It still needs a tidy up with some shovels but it’s starting to look much better.
We had our prison workforce hard at work again today, on the brush cutters. The yard is looking absolutely stunning now! Which is a great thing considering how much work will be going on here over the coming months.
We managed to tie in a small ballast drop towards the end of today. After we lifted and tamped curve 5 (just on the down side of Winters Flat Bridge) we found we’d used up most of the available ballast, however mainly in just one spot.
The bigger issue was the ballast shoulder was insufficient to prevent the track from moving in this particular spot, it had in fact pulled into a slight flat.
With summer approaching the last thing we want is to deal with a heat buckle, so after lining, a good dose of rock was added and spread to hold the track firmly in place.
It’s been a busy few months on the track gang and as such we haven’t managed to completely tidy up after every job. But this Thursday and Friday will see all that taken care of. So please join us at Maldon station at 8am and we’ll get back on top of our mess before we get into our next big job!
VGR Civil Blog 