It was a busy morning or drilling and spiking, with the final 160 odd metres completed.

Not that it was overly critical, but as we’re still having trouble with the circuitry, we did pull the insulated joints apart and swap around the plastic components, unfortunately this wasn’t the issue and we’re able to conclude the issue lies in the brain of flashing light control box.

The big digger collected all the extra materials and headed off to Maldon, which proved to be quite a load!

Around lunch time, the rains arrived and proceeded to set in, which coincided nicely with us handing back our occupation for a train to pass through, another test run for the J class.

Given that we were about done and without an occupation, we decided it was drier in the carriages than out on the ground, so we joined them for a trip through to Maldon and back! A very pleasant way to spend the arvo, a great way to experience all of our recent hard work!

Tomorrow’s weather is not looking very pleasant for working, so we’ll cancel the workday and postpone the very final part of the job by the Bridge until next week when the weather is kinder. Tuesday will be a workday, meeting Maldon 8am or on site from 8.30am.

Our day was focused very heavily on tidying up and preparing to install the final dog spikes tomorrow.

However in exciting news… we had to yield our use of the track for this to pass through….

A very bright, shiny and impressive J549 undergoing its first mainline run in just under 500 days!

We enjoyed watching it pass over our recent work at the Bridge so much that on our way back to the Maldon Depot we offered our cheers of support to the loco as it passed over the section of concrete sleepers we completed a few weeks ago.

It was a very impressive sight, sound and like welcoming back an old friend!

Check out the Mechanical blog and the VGR Facebook Page for all the exciting details.

We did do a working test of all the facilities, such as water columns and turntables that haven’t seen much use for 17 odd months, everything behaved perfectly (although we did do a full check over and some minor repair work to both in the previous week in anticipation).

Tomorrow’s gang will have the very exciting task of drilling holes and installing dog spikes, it’s not great fun however it is very literally the last hoorah in regards to rerailing on timber sleepers (the crossing at Sawmill Rd will likely be all concrete so hopefully this will be the last large scale timber sleeper drilling/spiking for some time).

Meeting at Maldon 8am or on site from 8.30am.

It was a long, hard day’s work today. However, all the remaining sleepers on Winters Flat Bridge have been drilled and spiked. Believe it or not, this took almost all day.

There was a fair time this afternoon however, when we couldn’t effectively use any more than 2 people at a time on the bridge, so we dropped out and subsequently inserted all the sleeper plates in the section off the bridge, which is approximately the length of the bridge also by coincidence.

We did have a logistical error in the location of the gang truck and more importantly the chairs for the meal breaks today…. this resulted in some interesting alternatives being devised by the crew!

A keen eye might even note that the Takeuchi excavator is back in action, the part has been repaired and refitted, and it’s back behaving as it should! For how long is anyone’s guess, but we’ll give it a good test this week as we have sleeper changes and tamping to complete.

Tomorrow’s gang will meet out on site from around 8.30am, where we’ll have a bit of a change of pace and break up as much of the 60lb as we can as there isn’t really anywhere appropriate to stockpile long lengths near the bridge.

First thing this morning and the down leg particularly had snapped into a very good line, requiring only minor tweaking to get it looking very nice.

The photograph was a bit slack again today, so no real action shot, but there after shot of the down leg, we’re really impressed with how it came up.

A good amount of time was spent doing a rough line off the bridge also and this has certainly improved the appearance greatly.

By day’s end, both legs were tied up at least 1 in 4 sleepers (equivalent to 1 in 3 anywhere else as the sleeper spacings on the bridge are far closer than elsewhere), we’d finished clipping up everything off the bridge and even run a light engine over the bridge to just prove that it would be satisfactory for the weekend, and its as solid as a rock, not any hint of movement and rides silky smooth (no photos unfortunately).

We’re still having trouble with the level crossing, however we’ve got a temporary solution to get us through the weekend which we’ll review next week once we’ve researched a little more closely on this exact make and model!

There won’t be a workday on Monday, however Tuesday will be a goer, meeting Maldon 8am or out on site, the bridge again, from 8.30am.