Well, we’re well and truly back into the swing of rerailing! Both Friday and today were very successful days, with bulk of the UP leg between Sawmill Rd and Boundary Trk now 80lb rail.

Fridays gang removed all the spikes from this leg, in readiness for rerailing (only about every 5th sleeper still had spikes, screws or concrete at the rest), this is a massive time saver on rerailing day. Friday also saw another 2 lengths of 80lb installed, in addition to Thursday’s effort.

Today’s crew managed a staggering 8 lengths, very comfortably. This being due to Friday’s preparatory works.

We did get fortunate with joint locations today, with no rails needing trimming, just the closure back to 60lb needed the rail saw.

By the end of the day, we were all very happy with our efforts, we finished on site a little early to collect fishplates and reload the truck while we could before Thursday.

We’ve only got 7 lengths to go on Thursday to reach Boundary Track, at which point we’ll then jump over to the other leg and get on with that.

Thursday’s gang will meet at Maldon at 8am or on site (Boundary Track Crossing) from 8.30am.

Well we’re back into the re-railing program, with a good start made today on the UP side of Sawmill Rd.

A total of 7 x 40m lengths of 80lb rail were installed (unlike last year’s rerailing with 94lb, all of this year’s will be 80lb).

We have modified our process a little, where we collect the old jewellery as we go, its tidier, but is a bit more time consuming.

Otherwise all very much the same as last year, we have been trimming the occasional rail, this will allow us to avoid using any bar plates (as we have none).

We had to swap a couple of rails over, they’d obviously been unloaded incorrectly off the train, but that was an easy fix.

By the end of the day however, all the concretes were clipped up and it was already looking much better! We’re a little slower than last year, but that’s just because we need to re-learn all the little tips and tricks (such as making sure there’s a spare blade for the saw on the digger!).

Tomorrow’s crew will be continuing on, meeting out on site near Sawmill Road from 8.30am

Tomorrow will see us returning to rerailing! We’ve spent this morning getting everything prepared and organised to hopefully allow us get a few hundred metres rerailed on Thursday and Friday.

Tomorrow’s crew will be meeting at Maldon at 8am or out by Sawmill Road from 8.30am.

We managed a very comfortable 40 concrete sleepers today, installed between Muckleford Yard and Chapman’s Lane.

These have been installed into a roughly 1 in 4 pattern, with a few extra where sleepers were particularly poor.

It was a very comfortable days work, from unspiking, running a 2inch along the length, installing the sleepers and a full tidy up, tamp and box up.

The only thing that would make it better now would be a hundred tonnes of ballast and a production tamp, hopefully those days will come.

This 1 in 4 pattern is something we’ll be progressively working on over the next few years. Continuing on all the way to Maldon. This will effectively pin our gauge all the way and give us a little more flexibility in replacing the remaining timber sleepers, hopefully aligning with more comcrets being made available through the level crossing renewal projects around the state.

Next week will hopefully see us back into rerailing, however, check back here Monday for details of Tuesday as it may end up being a preparation week.