Rail Recovery

A big day, with an enormous amount achieved.

We completed the lifting and dragging of rail up to Godfrey Lane (about 550m).

While the Hyundai was out of action, we tested the takeuchi at sled dragging, with it doing about 480m of the 550m. An excellent effort but it certainly is much better in the hands of the more powerful machine.

We mixed up the method a little, with some pre-removal of 3 out of 4 bolts which helped speed things up.

By Lunch Bazz had worked his magic on the Hyundai and it was alive and kicking once again (it was a cooked solenoid!), thanks Bazz!

We used the big digger to pull the last few lengths of rail up. The gang is really getting the pattern of works down pat and with incredible efficiency. A true credit to their dedication.

They even played lollipop men… For the whole 1 car all day.

We had so many people today that we even started sorting the jewellery into rough piles for collection.

A quick video showing some more dragging, not really exciting but it shows how much friction a rail has when being dragged.

Dragging the 2nd last rail of the day over the sled.

Thankfully the sled helps guide the rail very well, however we do always stop before dragging the free end over, clearing everyone and everything out of it’s reach before sliding it across.

It’s incredible how much flick a rail can have when wandering free like this.

The end spot for today’s lifting. We’re certainly making excellent progress.

The late afternoon was spent up by the next crossing, towing rail through to Donkey Gully Road. This will be the bulk of tomorrow’s work too. It’s quite tedious and very time consuming, but it’s the only way to get it all to Castlemaine, so we’ll just keep plodding.

Tomorrow’s meeting place is Goudges Ln around 8.15am. (or leaving Maldon around 7.30ish).