Today saw the detailed track inspection continue. Castlemaine Yard got a very thorough going over and revealed the least number of faults we can remember!
This isn’t surprising given the amount of work that has occurred there in recent years.
We’ve got 2 check rails with some loose and very rusty bolts that we need to come back to but otherwise nothing of any great concern.
While we were in Castlemaine we assist the workshops with the moving of some heavy equipment- the diggers made light work of this task.
The big digger made its way through to Maldon this afternoon, collecting bundles of timber sleepers on the way.
Tomorrow’s gang has the exciting task of continuing the track inspection, starting at Castlemaine and heading through to Muckleford.
We will be starting at Castlemaine Depot around 8.30am.
Part one, as today saw us operate the rolling track and undertake a detailed inspection of the track from Maldon to Muckleford.
The day began with all the usual calibration checks of the equipment before heading off for Muckleford.
We had a gang of 10 people today. About twice what is really needed for this task, but it’s safe to say we’ve had many eyes examine the track in great detail.
We found extremely exciting issues, 3 missing or damaged e clips – all almost certainly from a digger related altercation.
We found no instances of gauge faults requiring urgent action. The only instances were slightly tight gauge, which could all be attributed to sleeper condition – no instances in the concrete sleepers, which was excellent.
We made it to Donkey Farm Track for morning tea and managed to block the roadway in search of sunlight to warm our freezing bodies – it did warm up nicely after that, however.
Muckleford Yard received a thorough check up – a good few timber sleepers are coming on but nothing to get excited about yet.
We spent quite some time measuring and recording platform clearances and height about rail level.
We’ve also measured up any failing timber coping for replacement, we’ll probably be getting onto these fairly soon after completing the concrete sleepers through to Donkey Farm Trk, as they’re starting to show their age.
Little divets and oddities were filled to ensure no trip hazards exist.
The goods shed platform had a similar check up, however in not quite the same detail given the extremely minimal use.
All the same things were repeated at Maldon, with nothing of any concern to report back – which is not surprising. We’ve got a few minor potholes in the platform to fill, but the local hardware inly had damaged bags of cold mix asphalt which had already set… so not much use.
Part of the check includes the Turntable, one leg of the approach track benefited from a little tweak so that was undertaken. Only a few mm, but it improved things a little.
We did very well today and we’ll continue with this activity on Monday and Tuesday.
Monday will be dedicated to Castlemaine Yard checks. Meeting at Castlemaine Yard from 8am.
It began with a bit of work at Castlemaine Turntable, getting the rails perfectly aligned has always been a very interesting challenge.
It turns out that ever since its installation here back in the 90s, it’s been missing one of its side straps.
The shiny piece of steel you can see above.
This strap simply prevents the table moving relatively to its rocker pivot below. A few decades of accumulated grim and it was nie on impossible to see the missing strap – it was only one old bloke’s dim dark distant memory of installation day that got us to looking and thinking.. if the table had moved, even a few mm, maybe that would explain the odd alignment we’ve been experiencing.
Well, it didn’t take long to find that this was infact the issue. With a quick tug from the digger, she was back to the correct position, and it was lining up almost perfectly.
Given that we’d had several efforts over the years to correct this issue, we did have to undo one of the gauge adjustments we’d made as it was now causing some misalignment – thankfully just this one rail and it was the location previously adjusted.
Before too long, it was released, and with a little persuasion, it jumped back to where it was happy. Once fixed down, it was tested in all its various combinations and found to be aligning with the various runoff roads very well.
While in attendance, various other maintenance activities occurred on the turntable, to ensure hassle free operation. Tightening, lubricating etc…
It’s a bit of an odd claim to fame, but with the possible exception of the turntable at Dynon, Castlemaine Turntable is probably the most used table in the state. It gets used on average about 3 times a week, multiple times each day it is used, so it’s a remarkably low maintenance piece of infrastructure.
Once that job was behind us, we headed out to Donkey Farm Trk to keep dropping out concrete sleepers, we’ve dropped out approximately half of the way along the straight to the crossing, just a lot more to go! This work will continue tomorrow, meeting Maldon at 8am or near Donkey Farm Trk from 8.30am.
It began with a bit of work at Castlemaine Turntable, getting the rails perfectly aligned has always been a very interesting challenge.
It turns out that ever since its installation here back in the 90s, it’s been missing one of its side straps.
The shiny piece of steel you can see above.
This strap simply prevents the table moving relatively to its rocker pivot below. A few decades of accumulated grim and it was nie on impossible to see the missing strap – it was only one old bloke’s dim dark distant memory of installation day that got us to looking and thinking.. if the table had moved, even a few mm, maybe that would explain the odd alignment we’ve been experiencing.
Well, it didn’t take long to find that this was infact the issue. With a quick tug from the digger, she was back to the correct position, and it was lining up almost perfectly.
Given that we’d had several efforts over the years to correct this issue, we did have to undo one of the gauge adjustments we’d made as it was now causing some misalignment – thankfully just this one rail and it was the location previously adjusted.
Before too long, it was released, and with a little persuasion, it jumped back to where it was happy. Once fixed down, it was tested in all its various combinations and found to be aligning with the various runoff roads very well.
While in attendance, various other maintenance activities occurred on the turntable, to ensure hassle free operation. Tightening, lubricating etc…
It’s a bit of an odd claim to fame, but with the possible exception of the turntable at Dynon, Castlemaine Turntable is probably the most used table in the state. It gets used on average about 3 times a week, multiple times each day it is used, so it’s a remarkably low maintenance piece of infrastructure.
Once that job was behind us, we headed out to Donkey Farm Trk to keep dropping out concrete sleepers, we’ve dropped out approximately half of the way along the straight to the crossing, just a lot more to go! This work will continue tomorrow, meeting Maldon at 8am or near Donkey Farm Trk from 8.30am.
VGR Civil Blog 