Today began making use of the morning cool to get a bit more of 3 road back in place.
It’s a bit clunky getting old VR type steel sleepers clipped to the various weights of rail we have in 3 Road, a combination of 60AD, 60D and then onto 80/94 for the turnout. But by ratting our repository of bits we were able to successfully clip things up successfully.
We’ve reinstated one panel of 60AS that was removed months ago. However, to aid in connecting up to the bigger rail and to avoid cutting 2 otherwise good lengths of 60AS we’ve actually installed a half length of 60D rail. It’s much easier to join to 80lb given the materials we had on hand.
We’ve cut and drilled the closure rails, in 80lb, however installing those will be tomorrow’s first job.
As from morning tea onwards, we had a change of pace, dropping out sleepers near Pipeline Crossing in readiness for our big resleepering effort to begin again in March.
Given that the wagons were already at Maldon, only the trip out and back was required. A nice small load as part of T333’s testing and bedding in process.
It was then onto marking up rail, as we discovered in last year’s effort, knowing where sleepers need to go precisely, and only handling them once is a massive time saver.
As always, every fourth was picked out in a different colour. This section will be in the same style as late last year, 1 in 4 e clips, the remainder will be fastclips.
It was a bit of a relearning curve as our trusty sleeper gauge had been packed away, and while it was being found, a stick from the bush was called upon to substitute.
Once the train was empty and the sleepers marked up, the heat had risen suitably to encourage us to call it a day.
Tomorrow’s crew will work towards completing 3 Road at Maldon before the day warms up, there’s a few other jobs to knock over at Maldon tomorrow also. Meeting there from 8am.
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