Well we set out to install as much of the rail in the retaining wall as possible today, the end result was greatly more than we had expected given the horrid weather.

We’ve completed all the full length runs of longitudinal rail strings, with only about 10 rails left to install in the higher section early in the new year.

The day began by unloading rail from the wagon stored on site, placing the first of the rails down and working out exactly how to ensure they stayed there while they were welded on.

Bruce and Colin were very quick to work out a very easy system with crow bars, which proved to work extremely well.

Bazz was chief welder, working very closely behind the bolting up and propping crews.

By morning tea we’d reached the north end with the first run of rail, which proved quite time consuming as we had all sorts of conduits and an NBN pit to negotiate, thankfully Project Manager Graeme and Rolf tackled this task.

Morning tea was spent using about the only decent shade available in this area of the Castlemaine Yard – next to an old oil tanker.

We had some cutting to do and although water is now on site we decided the fire truck was just as good as any… until we managed to break the hose reel. The effect was very spectacular and the gang were in no way complaining about the water spray, once we’d run the ute back and fourth to wet the area we reverted to the mains supply while the hose reel was fixed.

By lunch we’d done so well we were even able to sand over the last of the exposed conduits to make life much easier for the higher levels of rails.

Lunch was in the sturdy old Shunter’s Cabin, now equip with couch and bench!

After lunch and we really got into the swing of things, with it all coming together very quickly. In the end we just had to give up because of the heat and given the enormous effort put in by everyone, it was a well deserved early finish (only about 1/2 hour early mind).  The new grabs proved invaluable in this task, the ability to move them so precisely made it very easy.

We’ve now got 6 longitudinal strings installed the full length, we still need to install another longitudinal string for half the length and then at least another for a quarter of the length. Something we should be able to achieve easily in the new year. Then we’ll be able to start back-filling and tidying up once that’s done.

That was the last workday for 2019! Tomorrow’s extreme heat, total fire ban and high fire danger seems like the universe’s way of telling us we’ve done enough for the year and we deserve an extra day off. (Civil Saturday on 21st Dec will NOT be running due to the same reason)

We look forward to seeing you all again in 2020, with gangs starting back on Tuesday 7th January. Thank-you once again to everyone who has come out and helped on the civil gangs this year – we just couldn’t have done it without you.

We would like to wish everyone a very safe and happy festive season – watch this space for the excitement that will be civil gangs 2020!

 

 

 

 

 

Today was the last of the track walk, between Winters Flat Bridge and Castlemaine. Nothing unexpected or disastrous, however a few things we will tend to early in the new year before they get any worse.

We even did a very detailed track patrol over the whole length, replacing 3 broken bolts, tightening others and tending to general odd jobs.

The retaining wall at Castlemaine had its bracing removed (now the concrete’s starting to set) ready for finishing (hopefully) on Thursday.

We even had our friendly Arborist in to remove a large dead tree at Maldon, it was starting to drop limbs and presented quite a risk. All the messy heads have been chipped and we’ve been left with the timber to use as light up wood for the locos.

On the theme of inspections and reducing risk, we have recently compiled the past few years of data in terms of sleeper insertions and re-railing.

Given our largely Volunteer Gangs, average age (over 60) and sometimes less than ideal working conditions (the hot summer days, wind, dust and general hard labour) the figures and graphs below paint an extremely pleasant picture of our tremendous track gang and all those who support them.

Sleeper Totals by Type
	Concrete	Steel	Timber
2019	1932	0	127
2018	367	51	134
2017 (June to Dec Only)	0	0	217
Total Jun 17 to Dec 19	2299	51	478

Re-railing of 60lb/yard Rail with 80lb/yard Rail
	metres
2019	2793
2018	4159.5
2017 (June to Dec Only)	2009.5
Total Jun 17 to Dec 19	8962

These figures are only since June 2017 (When the simple self calculating electronic records were started) and there are some equally significant figure from years gone past that shouldn’t be forgotten.

The figures really just speak for themselves, we will be happy to provide any explanation if asked in the comments section, but basically, we have made an enormous leap forward in the past 2.5 years in future proofing our little railway.

We now have in excess of 16km (lineal) of 80lb rail in place of the old 60lb, we have over 2300 less timber sleepers (now concrete) to worry about replacing every 20 or so years and most importantly we’ve achieved it all with a massive smile on our face.

We know that forever thanking everyone doesn’t make for the most exciting reading, but it is worth noting that it is a massive team of people that have made this possible, from our front line warriors out there week after week, to the behind the scenes meetings securing these valuable materials to the continued financial support from those who think our cause is worthy enough and to the management who have plenty of long days pulling out their hair trying to make it all come together.

We thank you all.

 

Some context in regards to the significant of these figures:

We have around 22000 sleepers in our 18km of track. Having 2300 concrete sleepers which have a life span of 50+ years (probably much longer on our line) means over 10% of our sleepers are “Durable” or long lasting sleepers. We can never expect more than 20 years from a timber sleeper and the continual replacement with timber is a very labour intensive task, requiring vast cost often at the cost of actual improvement (in the case of small business like ours).

10% might not seem a lot, but when you consider that just over 9% of that was just in this year alone… it shows if we can get the materials, we can make a bigger difference, fast. Assuming a steady supply of appropriate concrete sleepers and suitable conditions we could achieve a fully durable running line within the next 12 years.

We have 36 lineal km or rail (or there abouts) on our line, approximately 23 – 25km (exact figure not at hand when writing this) have already been re-railed or were already a heavier rail. So we are now well over half way. We only have around 13km of rail to replace to have the whole line completed, which we know can be done at a rate of around 4km/year, meaning we could have it all completed within 3.5 years.

We actually expect that the re-railing still required will happen at a much faster rater, given the number of concrete sleepers we’ve now installed, but we will wait to prove that before setting any timelines.

Given all the commitments of maintaining a safe railway, these time-frames will increase it’s inevitable, but if we can keep up the current momentum and productivity, we will not only improve our track very quickly, we will be making a lasting track, one which we can be proud and sure of for years to come.

We could always use more support – finanical, physical, logistical, administrative etc.. etc… We know it’s a big ask, but without the support the railway’s permanent way can very quickly become the whole railway’s Achilles heel.

If we can use our recently found success to get us over the line with your support, we will welcome it with open arms! Please contact us via email at civil@vgr.com.au or ganger@vgr.com.au

 

 

 

 

Another very successful day, with 60 more concrete sleepers installed and all tamped up.

These 60 were comparatively easy, compared to yesterday’s 114 given the very shallow cutting and no high embankments.

We had such a turnout of helpers from the Middleton Prison that we had all the sleepers in and clipped up well before lunch.

To keep the gang busy after lunch we replaced the 27 life expired timber sleepers in this section, giving us a very good strong track.

An excellent way to round off the re-sleepering program for 2019.

It’s not quite the Christmas break yet, next week will still be a normal week, being the completion of the retaining wall at Castlemaine. If the extreme temperatures forecast allow us! -watch this space.

Tuesday morning will be the completion of the detailed track inspection, we’ve only got about 1.5km to go, so feel free to join us from 8am at Maldon.

Another day and another 114 concrete sleepers installed.

Given the amount of time we’ve had to put into the new retaining wall at Castlemaine, we haven’t had much preparation time for this job. However we did have plenty of timber sleepers from the previous straight to bundle up.

This kept the gang busy while the first 60 odd concretes were inserted.

The stacks are all located conveniently track-side for later moving with the excavator to a stack that we can then side load onto a train.

We’re starting to get the hang of these new grabs, which is proving to really speed up the operation. We can’t quite keep ahead of the clipping up crew but it’s not far off it now.

Scarifier and digger hard at work, with the clipping up (hidden by the shrubbery) hot on their heels.

The new grabs are proving to be far gentler on the concrete, with little to no damage. Something which the old grabs weren’t always that good at.

We’ve only got another 60 concretes track-side to install tomorrow, which by today’s efforts should only be a morning’s work! Meeting Maldon 7.45am or on site from 8.15am. This will be the last re-sleepering for 2019 so why not join us.