Friday

We had a very successful day on Friday, however a quick update on the buy a sleeper campaign before we continue.

Thankyou to your generous donations over the past few week, we’ve now raised $68,310 out of our target of $250,000!

We’d love to reach $75,000 by the end of Feb, even if you can only spare a few dollars every little bit helps, https://www.vgr.com.au/product/buy-a-sleeper/406

Thankyou!!

The bridge is now far straighter than it was previously, we weren’t as successful with the rail adjustment as we’d hoped, with the rather cool change on Thursday evening shrinking the rail quite significantly, we were able to trim a good 20mm, which should certainly remove any excess stress. We’ll fix this up much more definitely when we rerail.

Quite a few other bolting, tightening and maintenance jobs were ticked off on Friday, with all but one troublesome bolt now corrected.

You would think it could make such a difference. However, being able to use the tele to gain a few inches in height makes the job infinitely easier, we were surprised how invaluable this tool has become!

One of the long-standing issues has been with the escapes. Their location has always been awkward to gain access to ensure tightness, etc… however for the first time in years we were able to very safely access all the angles for effective tightening – hopefully they never get needed, but it’s nice to know they’re quite sturdy and safe should they ever be requires. One escape has had a brace fitted to further sturdy things up. It had become loose also, so it’s now very firmly affixed and packed in place.

We’ve still got a couple of small jobs to tend to on the bridge tomorrow, mainly related to some minor deck holes that will be quite easy to patch. We’ll then be going onto getting equipment into  Castlemaine in preparation for next week’s big effort next to Vline to remove a large number of the remaining timber sleepers. Meeting at Maldon 8am or the Bridge from 8.45am