It didn’t take too long this morning to tidy up the mess and mark up the next 160 to be changed. It’s come up very nicely and seems to be a significant distance towards getting this straight complete.
Once that was all behind us, it was down to Castlemaine to begin some turntable maintenance.
It was due one of it’s regular bolt tightening and fettles. The rails had wandered on the table just a little one end, however they had moved the end timbers a little – it was easily put right by loosening the fishplates and wedging the timber and rails back to their correct locations. It’s a bit of a design flaw with these things, there is very little to brace the timberwork to the steelwork and after a bit of shrinkage things can move – however it’s also much better to correct a bit of timberwork that’s moved than have that stress on the old steelwork, as it’s likely to be far less forgiving. Ultimately a few hours work ever few years is a pretty small trade-off.
It was also a good opportunity to give it a mow, much tidier now.
On the whole, it was a bit of an odd job week. However, it was quite successful.
Next week will be a bit quieter, with only Tuesday being a workday, there will be no work on Thursday or Friday. Tuesday’s crew meeting at Maldon at 8am.
VGR Civil Blog 