The last major length of 94lb rerailing was tackled today, the final 317m to get to Sawmill Rd Bridge.

The now common sight of 4 rails instead of the usual 2 is starting to become a memory, on this section of the railway at least.

The well rehearsed practice of rerailing has all been for this moment! Well, not quite but it does have that sort of feeling.

Getting a correct length rail to square up the closures did require a quick trip to Muckleford to select a 15m from the stockpile, we also selected a slightly shorter junction rail to match the other leg.

Before long that was all cut to length, bolted together and clipped up.

This Thursday and Friday we will actually be tackling the rerailing across the bridge, so we’re not quite finished our efforts yet, however that’ll be a lot more time consuming and will likely take the two days, once we cut in the closures just before the level crossing.

While out in the area, a couple of loose fishplates in Sawmill Rd were dug out and tightened, this crossing will be rebuilt in early 2023, so it doesn’t have to survive too much longer.

However some of the gang today had a bit of excitement, with a burning car discovered dumped near Donkey Farm Track, the matter was handed over to the CFA and Police, thankfully no damage to anything on the Railway.

Thursday’s gang will meet at Maldon at 7.45am or out near Sawmill Rd crossing at 8.15am, we’ve got a fair amount of preparation work to do on rerailing over the bridge, so it’ll be a bit of a mixed day.

Another extremely successful day today, with the UP leg now rerailed right up to Sawmill Rd Bridge.

What began as just a few lengths, quickly snowballed into 216m of rail, and by sheer fluke, the rail happened to end in exactly the right place just before the bridge, it’s nice to have a win sometimes.

Before we rerail across the bridge we’ll get the other leg down to the same point, which is where the gang is standing.

It’s really feeling like we’re getting somewhere now, with mere meters to go now and we’ll have all the 94lb rail in. Everything the other side is 80lb and they’ll likely be next year’s job given how much we still need to go back to do before summer.

Tuesday’s gang will be meeting at Maldon at 8am or out on site from 8.30am.

Another extremely successful day today, with the UP leg now rerailed right up to Sawmill Rd Bridge.

What began as just a few lengths, quickly snowballed into 216m of rail, and by sheer fluke, the rail happened to end in exactly the right place just before the bridge, it’s nice to have a win sometimes.

Before we rerail across the bridge we’ll get the other leg down to the same point, which is where the gang is standing.

It’s really feeling like we’re getting somewhere now, with mere meters to go now and we’ll have all the 94lb rail in. Everything the other side is 80lb and they’ll likely be next year’s job given how much we still need to go back to do before summer.

Tuesday’s gang will be meeting at Maldon at 8am or out on site from 8.30am.

An extremely successful day today, with 503m of rail installed. We didn’t actually count the number of rails but it certainly felt like a lot.

It all happened with a minimum of fuss and with clockwork precision, with the whole low leg of Curve 9 completed before lunch.

So after lunch we set about making a start on the tangent. We’re about a rail length of the whistle board now, putting Sawmill Rd Crossing firmly in our sights. The level crossing will be the end point for the short term, as we then go back and begin the massive task of drilling, spiking and replacing any failed timber.

It now seems quite achievable, with only a few hundred metres to go.

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