Well Castlemaine Yard was once again a maze of trenches Yesterday, installing the future oil and air lines from the loco shed to the fuel store. This has been the hold up in us completing the track into the workshop.
Thankfully however when we arrive on site this morning, the trenches were filled, enough for the track to go down at least.
It was all just the usual mechano kit of bits, concrete sleepers and the non-mainline worthy bits of 94lb rail we had lying around, stuff that’s come out of concrete, crossings and heavily worn on one side, it all went in, once any rough ends had been docked off.
It has certainly changed the appearance of the area quite considerably. You’ll also be pleased to note that the battery rattle gun did all the work bolting up today, around 10 joints worth, all on one battery! Now we just need a battery rail saw and drill and we’ll have done away with all the horrible heavy gear.
By close of play (on what ended up being a very hot play!), all the rails had been connected, sleepers roughly positioned and jewellery dropped out.
A keen eye might note the rather close spacing of the sidings here. The last two panels which we temporarily dropped on the end are foul, so we’re glad we didn’t do anything more than just drop them there, as we’ll take them up or slew them hard over to the fence to give some extra storage room in the short term, before the fuel storage is installed.
We made use of a driver experience train yesterday to transfer all the appropriate wagons to Castlemaine for these works, it made for a decent sized train. The Y class was to aid in shunting and give it a good run as it hasn’t done much for some time.
The bulk of the job is done now, the heavily lifting part anyhow. Just lots of clipping up to go! So we’ll definitely be here all Thursday and most of Friday, meeting on site from 8.15am.
VGR Civil Blog 