Well… after another big effort today, the last of the 60lb on and around Winters Flat Bridge has been replaced with 80lb.

Thankfully, there are many photos of the works today, which was essentially a carbon copy of yesterday.

It began with a reminder/refresh session on the safe use, checking, adornment of harnesses, and the rail-sliders. Once everyone was again familiar with the equipment and its correct use, we headed out to start the job.

It began by dropping out sleeper plates and removing all of the inside screws, leaving all outside screws for the time being.

The reason for leaving the outside screws was to allow for much easier extraction of the outer screws, having a much larger flatter area to stand upon, without the rail getting in the way. This was achieved by having the digger travel back over the trackwork to flick the 60lb slightly away from the remaining screws, enabling an easy pull of the rail off the bridge without snagging the fishbolts on screws, this was done in two halves to lessen the chance of any snagging, given the long strings of rail had to go around a curve once off the bridge. 

Once that was gone, the screw removers returned to take out all the outer screws, with the digger then placing the new rail roughly in position as it worked back across the bridge.

All the while we had spotters at various locations below the bridge to keep an eye on any potential falling rocks and you’ll be happy to know we didn’t have anything fall (not surprising as there was no need to touch the ballast near the kerb).

Once in, it looked very smart, however it was time to install the sleeper plates.

This was a very time consuming task, as the digger sits well ahead, lifting the rail just high enough to insert the plates under and then resting it down again, before repeating the process, approximately every 10 sleepers. (There is a lot of sleepers on that bridge).

Once all plates were under, the sleepers screwed on the Down Leg yesterday to the reference marks, were gauged and screwed, as this helps ensure before cutting the closure, that there isn’t excess rail on the bridge.

In the meantime, however, the closure was being prepared, the piece of rail we had was back to front, so that needed to be taken well away to a roomier location for turning around.

Once facing the correct way, it was dragged back down to the site and cutting began.

One end was cut, drilled and plated up ready for the final length measurement once the crew on the bridge were done screwing up.

Once the final screw was in, the whole big long length was given a good tug to pull out any slack, around 10mm was gained by this so it shows how easy it can be to get too much rail in a section.

Before long however, it was all joined up and looking, well still pretty twisty. This is not surprising as only about 12 sleepers are pinned to the rail for the whole length of the bridge, and given we were now in the warmest part of the day, the rail will grow enough to get a little wiggly between the fixed points. However now that it’s bolted up, the cool of tonight will see all of those wiggles straightened out to an almost perfect straight line (we tested this theory on the Down Rail Yesterday and it worked perfectly!). So we’ve saved all the screwing down for tomorrow morning, when the job will be much easier!

We called upon the signals branch today to reinstate the diode at the new Insulated Joint. The diode is bolted through a Cembre, effectively a swagged piece of aluminum through a hole drilled in the rail, the little machine is the swagger.

Gary came out to undertake this work and ensure everything worked as a result of the recent re-railing, which unfortunately it doesn’t quite, we’re still chasing our tail on this one as the issue doesn’t seem to be with our work, rather up at the box itself, so we’ll no doubt get that resolved tomorrow.

The diode was also replaced with a new one and buried appropriately to ensure its safety.

By the end of the day, we were extremely proud of our efforts, with only a few hours’ work remaining to complete the track over the bridge tomorrow, at least to make it safe for trains this weekend with a speed restriction, however it’s quite likely we’ll get the whole thing tied up.

Tomorrow’s crew will meet on site from 8.15am.

A very successful day today work wise, however only a very slight improvement photo wise unfortunately…

And yes unfortunately one is just a zoomed in view of the other.

What it’s showing, of attempting to, is that the down leg is now continuously 80lb rail, from Midland Hwy Crossing to Sawmill Road!

The rail is all cut in and bolted up, however so far it’s only fastened up in about 12 locations across the bridge, to match up with the theodolite marks from earlier in the week. First job tomorrow will be to complete a 1 in 4 tie up of this rail, so we can begin work on the other leg.

Hopefully, there will be more photos tomorrow, to explain the process much better than words. However it’s very simple, just more time consuming than plain normal track.

Tomorrow’s crew, collecting the yellow truck from Maldon at 7.45am then out on site from 8.30am.

A good strong effort on the photography front today, with a whole one photo, which didn’t even show anything related to the work being undertaken!

Anyhow, in a brief round up, the matching insulated joint has been installed and all the rail installed yesterday has been clipped up.

The majority of the day was spent measuring, cutting and preparing the rails to go over the bridge, as they were all exactly different lengths. One we’d got everything prepared, they were all bolted together off the bridge, where it’s easy and then as 2 separate big long strings of rail (approx 160m each), were dragged onto the bridge, in readiness for the rail swap and to provide the anchor point for the harness restraints.

We’ll be back into it tomorrow, with the plan being to install the wire bonding between the joints on the crossing side of the Insulated joints, before beginning the rail change up on the bridge. Meeting out on site, access from Midland Hwy Crossing, from 8.30am.

Quite a change of pace today, with some of the very last of the 60lb being swapped over for 80lb.

We managed to resurrect the ballast brush, to help flick rocks clear and that made the job much easier, given the thick layer of ballast here, it was going to be a lot of digging otherwise.

This section is part of the track circuiting for Midland Hwy Crossing, as such the crossing has by necessity been made inactive to allow these works, hence why its desirable to do such works in an extended no trains period, here we’re removing the diode at the far end of the  circuit to ensure no damage could come to it.

We flicked up the replacement rails and had a bit of a think about the best locations for joints (as no two of these rails were the same length, so a few needed cutting, best to minimise that however).

It took no time at all and the down rail was in.

And with the new down leg insulated joint for the level crossing, these haven’t moved at all, but given the rail size increase, new insulated joints were required. These are hard-butted with a plastic endpost between the rails to ensure electrical isolation, and the aim being that these are frozen (don’t expand / contract) as any gap here tends to result in the plastic endpost breaking, they’re really easy to install when re-railing like this, much quicker and simpler than in pre-existing track.

Once we’d dropped in the new rail on the Down leg prior, without actually extending onto the bridge, we set about the UP leg.

This one required a couple of cuts to make it all happy, so took a little longer.

Anyhow before long it too was in place in 80lb.

During the day we had Rolf working with his theodolite to give us a straight line to work to over the bridge, as the rails that are there currently are far from straight, we certainly don’t want to include those errors in the rerail.

Everything from today has been bolted up, but nothing has yet been clipped up, meaning we’ll be able to hit the ground running in the morning.

Tomorrow’s crew will start at Maldon to collect the yellow truck then meeting on site, entry is best from Midland Hwy Crossing from around 8.30am.