Maldon Yard

We had an extremely successful day today, with our new turnout almost complete.

We began the day by finishing off the headshunt, dropping out the rest of the rails, bolting it all together and clipping it up.

This was all done the easy way, squeezing everything up with the grabs and only using the handtools when needed – certainly saved some time, this doesn’t work accurately enough for out on the running line, but for a siding, what we’ve done will be adequate for at least 100 years.

We tried something a little different this time, before installing the curved rails, we ballasted what we could from the tipper and the rest using the digger.

This was a massive improvement, as we didn’t have to spend hours shovelling rock around the complex trackwork, just a few scrapes with the bucket, a quick blow and we were in business.

Like the turnout before, the ground below had been installed with a fall to aid drainage, as such the straight leg required a very small lift only, while the other leg did need some jacking. The laser level proved its value once again!

Before long it was into cutting rail ready to install the closures. We got very lucky with the cool weather today for rail cutting, however a good dampen down before and after the cuts was still a good idea.

Before long it was into the fine tweaking of the curve to ensure it was consistent and smooth, it most clearly wasn’t at the time of this photo, however it turned out very nicely.

The usual processing of drilling, spiking and installing the matching rail followed, all with what seemed like a minimum of fuss.

A bit of final ballasting certainly saw the job nicely in hand.

We’re rather proud of our efforts for this week, we’ve still got a bit to go tomorrow, spreader bars, point lever etc etc however it’s likely we’ll knock them over.

We do however have a small excursion to Muckleford planned tomorrow morning, however we’ll still meet at Maldon at 8am, then off to Muckleford by 8.30am, all being well we’ll be back to Maldon by morning tea to continue with our works.