Sleepers and Bridge

Sorry it’s been a few days since the last post, however it has been quite productive.

Thursday last week saw a big effort at Winters Flat Bridge, it get it back into shape for the weekend.

This was the main point of impact, thankfully only superficial marks. However, it has knocked a bit off the beams, so their lifespan has reduced as any odd shaped hole or scratch increases the surface area and in turn means more area for decay.

Some detailed inspection with a closed lane showed it was all still okay structurally to let a digger across.

Once the digger has wandered around, it was lined up to push the beams back into their correct location, an action which straightened the bridge very nicely at the same time.

This was followed by lots of bolt tightening.

The J class just happened to be steam for unrelated matters – so a load test was conducted using it – passed with flying colours – no movement was detected – really meaning we’d done a good job of bolt tightening.

The opportunity was taken to observe Pyrenees Hwy Bridge under load, nothing of concern, just to get intimately acquainted with how much things move realtive to each other – nothing of any excitement was observed thankfully.

It turns out steam locos have an inbuilt ladder rack!

We were so successful at the Bridge on Thursday that we made it back to the concrete sleepering and picked up a few dips and wiggles to improve things for the weekend trains.

Monday –

Monday’s crew returned to sleepers, getting another 20 e clip sleepers under and clipped up, as well as dropping out more sleepers.

Today –

Today’s crew continued on, installing a further 20 e clips and all the in-between sleepers.

The day went so well – the power of a desire to stay warm in the Arctic conditions no doubt – that an additional 20 e clips were prepared and spikes pulled.

This means that after tomorrow and Thursday, this week will have seen another 240 sleepers installed, leaving only about that again to reach the crossing!

Tomorrow’s and Thursday’s crews will meet at Maldon at 8am or on site from 8.30am.