Pit Timbers

Today saw us make a good start on the pit timbers in the loco shed.

It’s a pretty slow job, as each piece of timber needs to be accurately cut, drilled and aligned quite exactly. Which all takes times.

We’ve pretty well got one side ready for grouting and fastening down now. With a good third of the day being a learning curve (as with a lot of jobs, we’ll be experts by the end and then not use the skills again for 20 years!)

The timbers are all almost 4 years old, so they’re quite well seasoned and still fairly straight, however the ends are all unfortunately bowed, more so longitudinally than vertically, so our lap joints will require a little bit of tidy up they’re fixed in their final homes. Once backfilled and with rail installed it’ll all last a hundred years (hopefully!).

Tuesday we’ll be back here, setting this side to it’s final height and grouting underneath (to help fill the voids in the bricks and ensure better load bearing), we’ll then have a finished height to work to on the other side. Meeting Maldon 7.30am or Castlemaine from 8am (no real need to meet at Maldon).