Lots more sleeper plates inserted today, around 0.5kms worth.

Of the plates inserted most have been tamped and all of those have been drilled. Spikes have been dropped out with a few started.

We’ll be continuing this on Thursday, when hopefully we’ll get all the remaining plates under, tamped up and drilled, leaving only the actual spike driving to go, which should be quite a straight forward exercise.

Thursday’s gang will meet at Maldon at 7.45am or out on site (near the gas pipeline) from around 8.15am.

We will be working tomorrow, as there isn’t actually all that much rain forecast.

Well meet at Maldon at 8am, then head out to the Gas Pipeline to insert more sleeper plates, drill and spike etc… from 8.30am.

The track in from the Muckleford end is quite rough after the rain, we’d recommend coming the long way in through Sawmill Rd (the gate will be open)

We got very lucky with the weather today. Just a hint of rain as the last battery went flat.

We’ve drilled and stood spikes for just over 1 km, a fair effort for a small crew of 5!

We got to test a creation of John’s, a slide hammer for starting spikes. And despite it being a bit heavy after the first km, it certainly beats the hell out of bending over and starting each one with a hammer!

We’re now well into Curve 11, with really only one days worth of drilling to go to get to the end of the job, plus a few more days to get everything ready for drilling.

Next week’s weather is looking interesting, so check back on Monday for details of Tuesday.

It was nice to finally get back out onto the track today, in what actually ended up being a warmish day in the sun.

We spent the day drilling holes, dropping out spikes, starting the spikes and driving them.

We’ve covered close to one km of spike driving today and probably around another 500m of drilling and standing.

Tomorrow’s crew will be continuing with this task, starting about 2kms this side of Sawmill Rd Crossing (enter via Sawmill Rd). The weather is looking a little unpredictable, however there isn’t any significant rain forecast to fall until the afternoon, so we should still achieve a bit. We’ll be meeting on site from around 8.15am.