Following on from yesterday’s efforts, today saw some additional drainage works, focusing on the up side of the crossing.

The patch of sleepers that needed ballast, had that applied, jacked and tamped to height. Around the same time we discovered the drains through the crossing were block at the ends, so a few feet were removed and they started flowing very impressively, hopefully this allows the crossing to be much dryer for next week’s works.

Once the ballast had been regulated and tamped, it all came up looking pretty snazzy. A keen eye will notice we’ve removed the ballast shoulder on the left hand side, this is to allow caught water under the sleepers to drain. We’ll renew the shoulder with fresh ballast next week once it’s had a good chance to drain.

We also took the opportunity to remove a number of small geometry defects, particularly lifting the Down Side approach to Rowe Street Crossing, we always intended to come back here once the ballast settled, today was the day.

These relatively small jobs make an enormous difference to the overall appearance and ride comfort. As we move to having a more stable track (big rails, good sleepers and ballast) we’ll be able to dedicate more time to these jobs.

Next week’s looking busy, with workdays everyday in readiness for the Crossing Rebuild on Thursday and Friday. Monday we’ll be meeting at Maclise St at 8.30am to disable the lights and remove the track leads.

Following on from the drainage works on Tuesday, we’ve made a start on re-sleepering the approaches to Maclise St.

On the up side of the crossing, 16 concrete sleepers have been installed.

On the Down side 33 were installed, coming quite some distance from crossing to effectively give us a long stretch of 1 in 2 concretes. This section here still had a high number of sleepers from when it was still part of the Maryborough line, so the opportunity was taken to replace the majority of those.

We raced through the standard sleeper insertions, so we spent the afternoon digging out the fouled ballast beside the roadway.

Thankfully once we removed the top layer of fouled material, very clean, firm ballast and road-based was discovered. We’ve taken the opportunity to complete remove the shoulder ballast, which just here was largely sand and silt.

Once dug out, 100% replacement of the sleepers was undertaken. We’re yet to apply the fresh ballast and tamp everything up, but we had to leave something for tomorrow. Next week once we can have the track leads removed, we’ll continue this treatment through the insulated joints to where the 1 in 2 concrete sleepers start.

We’ve still got a bit to do on site tomorrow, meeting at Maclise St. From 8.30am.

Today saw us transfer this strange collection of rolling stock from Castlemaine and Muckleford through to Maldon for longer term storage (and to be used as slightly more secure storage space).

The above pic was taken during one of the many checks to make sure the old 4 wheeled wagons were travelling well (most of which, despite not being used for decades, had perfectly functioning brakes and well lubricated axle boxes). We had a good collection of safety wagons attached to ensure we had adequate braking, but in reality everything went perfectly to plan and it was all over by lunch!

The more exciting aspect was that on the return trip, we got to receive back our trusty Y class loco, having had a few electrical repairs, it’s like a new one again… but even that wasn’t the best bit… we’re once there was 4, now there are 5.

5 ballast wagons, all looking extremely smart and ready for action.

It’s just waiting on having its stencils applied, which should occur this weekend, then it’ll be put to use. Big thanks to the workshops for all the hours repairing, repainting and servicing to get this last wagon back in traffic.

While it might be nice to have more ballast wagons, 5 really is the maximum load we can handle on our steep grades with one Y class, which for most of our planned ballasting will be the case, we may find we need two locos, one at each end to save time running around etc… but we’ll worry about that when it happens.

The afternoon was productivly spent mowing grass at crossings and re-instating some trackside drains at Maclise St crossing. They’d been backed up for many many years going by all the large rocks and bits of conduit we found in the drains. 

We’ve even cleaned out the discharge portion of the drains, so maybe now it might be able to escape the site.

We’ve done a lot of work tidying up the drains just off the roadway, which is largely historical dirt from before the roadway at the hard left was sealed near the intersection. Hopefully this won’t occur again now.

It was amazing how dry the site actually was, given how the water was just pooling there, so hopefully the underlying crossing foundation is actually quite good.

Tomorrow is looking just too wet to realistically manage anything, so the next workday will be Thursday, meeting at Maldon 7.45am or at Maclise St. From 8.15am.

Sorry, been bit slow on the blog entries this week. However that doesn’t mean we’ve been sitting idle.

Yesterday’s main task was tidying up the jewellery along the recently re-railed section, with the task of sorting etc…. taking most of the morning. While out there we also completed the anchoring of the curve, a nice job to have behind us with the weather warming up.

After lunch, a run out to the gas pipeline was made with the flail mower and chainsaw to reduce the rather overgrown shrubbery and small trees that have started close to the track in these good wet seasons.

We’re certainly not clearing all the foliage, but basically two flail mower strip’s to help ensure some fire break and help keep the side drains clear.

Today’s job focused on moving sleepers and rail out to Maclise St. However the opportunity of a loco at Muckleford and a flail mower at the ready, was too good to pass up.

So with the yard cleared we set about tidying up all the long grass, that’s now been a few years worth of growth. You can tell it’s going to be a fairly intense mowing season when things are getting quite overgrow in early October!

Once Muckleford had been tidied, a train load of sleepers and rail were discharged trackside at Maclise St level crossing ready for the rebuild there in a fortnight. While there a bit of re-arranging, tidying, weedspraying and housekeeping was undertaken, all in aid of making the job that little bit easier.

Next week will largely be focused on Maclise St. No formal workday on Monday, Tuesday will see another works train to transfer some rolling stock around the railway, while Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we’ll be busy at Maclise St.. check back the day prior for meeting times and places.