The weather is looking potentially wet, however in our planned task of getting a head start on more concrete sleepers, we should be able to duck for cover if need be.
Meeting at Maldon 8am.
Friday…
It didn’t take too long to finish off our inspection on Friday morning.
We quickly decided to correct a few issues in 2 road, lifting a significant dip and replacing a cracked fishplate.
Our attention was then turned to a bit of a hole that had formed between 2 and 3 roads in Maldon Yard, we had hoped for a glamorous mine shaft, with a hidden nugget just waiting for us to find.
It was quite disappointing to find it was only a 140 year old stump starting to rot out…
The hole was filled, compacted and topped with gravel to tidy it up. However, no gold was found, nor was there any sign of any…
The afternoon was spent marking up the next 220 sleepers (enough needed to get over the rise) on tangent 20-21.
All being well by the end of this week, we’ll be up and over the rise, leaving a very short section to go.
VGR Civil Blog 
It is surprising in some ways that a tree stump is still in such good condition considering its been in the ground since before the railway to Maldon was built. Also shows just how much was cleared for the railway.
On another note, I thought that the recent book by Mal Pascoe shows the covered mine shaft towards the west end of the yard.
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Hi Owen, it was likely buried just deep enough to have no oxygen and we probably gave it some 2 years ago when we dug a drain nearby!
We understand there is probably only one mine shaft, however there are multiple vents/risers whatever the correct terminology is, as we’ve re-capped many around Maldon over the years.
Cheers,
Will
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