Castlemaine Works

Today, we took just about the whole civil fleet through to Castlemaine.

The purpose, amongst other things, was to attempt to correct an issue on Signal Post 10 – with one of the disc signals failing to operate. We had expected we might have needed a different lift machine to get close enough, however the telehander and cage proved ideal for the situation.

This image from below shows why the use of the ladder was out of the question… the timber is so rotten up there that the deck doesn’t exist. We’ve come to the conclusion that this deck is extremely old – quite possibly original – circa 1914 however it could have been renewed in the 50s but based on the lack of paint and inability to replace it due to a fairly major design flaw (if you remove the deck you haven’t got anything to stand on) it’s certainly not recent.

The issue was with one of these square rods – these rotate to translate the movement of the wire and other rods across to the correct location to operate the signal – it’s simple and works well… but only if the rod does rotate – for reasons that still aren’t too apparent that stopped happening – likely a lack of lube, which is hard to do given its underneath the deck.

Some relatively interesting observations were made when up there – the signal hasn’t been repainted since it was erected – or at least heavily modified – the rods are each labelled and written on – including the words Castlemaine Post 10 – which is most likely from when these parts were being prepared in the stores or depot – and given there’s bits behind other bits that you couldn’t access with having it dissembled – it’s safe to say it’s been a very long time since its last full repaint – we’re guessing bits have been touched up at times – but probably only the easy to access bits.

It’s a nice view from up there.

In a nutshell, however, once we’d removed and straightened the long rod, unstuck the square rod and given everything a good lube, it all now operates perfectly. Another win for the telehander.

We will, in due course, replace the deck on this signal – however, it’s not overly simple, so we’ll plan that one in a bit more depth.

The afternoon was spent sorting out some rubbish in one of the wagons and a start was made on cleaning out the big red shed’s gutters – which had the rain not beaten us, would have been completed.

Tomorrow we’ll start at Maldon at 8am but we’ll be working at Castlemaine, starting there around 8.45am.