Today saw the removal of pile 2L from the bridge. It was the next in line for replacement, with the new pile going in tomorrow.

Here the digger is digging out around the pile, to allow removal and determine the condition of the sill below the base of the pile.

One job that was required before the pile removal was adjusting the cross head position (the timbers running across the top of the piles) as for some reason these particular cross heads were slightly off set, rather than centred. We again used our mighty machine to do the heavy work, after we’d jacked the weight of the deck.

Once we’d moved the cross heads, a bit of beam straightening was also needed, some gentle pushing and pulling with the bucket sorted that out very easily.

Ian and Norm preparing the tongues on the new pile.

Using the grab to remove the old pile, we found after removing the pile the sill (timber raft that the pile sits on) was in remarkably good condition and did not require replacement, likely replaced only some 25 years ago.

We also drilled and bolted up the opposite pile, needing all new bolt holes after the cross head movement.

A surprise guest vehicle even joined the gang today! Ian’s Dodge, being run in after recent engine works, made the trip down from Bendigo.

No pics unfortunately, however we also had another gang working on breaking up the strings of 60lb rail, on the station side of the bridge. This allows us to remove the old rail for storage, making grass slashing and sleeper replacements much easier.

Today’s small crew tackled a few odd jobs around the railway.

We replaced a point timber at Maldon, fixed up a broken down pipe at Muckleford, sorted some dog spikes and mended a damaged door hinge!

Just another day on the track gang.

We’d hoped to be into the last of the rerailing today, however the stars didn’t quite align.

We did get all the material distributed, ballast regulated away from the work area and the completed section boxed up and regulated. It’s looking quite neat and tidy.

Malcolm and Clive are seen here collecting all the old track jewellery and chucking it into the bucket. This was later sorted into drums for re-use, scrap etc…

A pic of the tidied up ballast, with the boys in the distance distributing dog spikes.

We’ve taken a different tack this time, placing the rails in the 5 foot rather than on the sleeper ends, this should making getting the old 60lb out of the way easier and should reduce the double handling of the sleeper plates.

We haven’t been able to do this previously, however our new grab gives us a lot more flexibility.

We’ll let you know if this proves more efficient.

Today we tackled the long running wiggles and dips either side of farmers bridge.

Until fairly recently ballast had been falling from the ends of the bridge to beneath, due to insufficient solid material to retain the rock, however that was rectified some months ago by inserting some old 60lb rail to fill the voids permanently.

At the time we didn’t have any ballast on hand, but now that we do (still not much unfortunately!) we thought it was well overdue for a top up and a good lift and line.

The pics below show the newly ballasted and lined track. All nicely regulated and looking quite smart!

The line is still not dead straight, but that will be rectified when it comes to re-railing this section, however for the VGR’s needs this is perfect.

We put a lot of effort into building what we could of a ballast shoulder, to prevent track movement, a contributing cause to the previous movement.

While we were out we also lifted a bit of settled track on the UP side of Walmer Rd bridge as well topping up the ballast at the ends of Muckleford Creek Bridge followed by a quick tamp.

We’ll be back on deck after a well earned Easter break, with the rest of Curve 16 in our sights for the first week in April.