On Friday we connected the track from the turntable to A Bay in the Loco Shed – almost ready for locos.
John and John finishing off screwing down points
Our first job was to finish off the pointy end of the turnout – we ran out of the right screws yesterday!
Trevor and John cutting and drilling rails to bridge the gap.
Fitting a ‘closure’ rail between two sections of track takes a lot of care and we had four to do.
Mick hard at work with a paint brush, lubricating the ends of rails before joining them.John, Trevor, John and Rolf drilling, bolting and clipping rails before screwing them to the timbers.Here comes the excavator to move some rails.The track is joined up but not finished, but good enough for the Excavator to run over.
And to prove its good enough –
In the door it comes.
Another successful day but with quite a bit to do before we finish it.
Next Week – Thursday and Friday – Re-railing towards Farmers Bridge. Meet at Muckleford at 8.00am each day. Please ring John on 0427 352 416 to confirm you are coming.
On Thursday and Friday we worked on finishing the access tracks into A and B bays of the new loco shed at Castlemaine. Back in February we made a good start by building most of the turnout needed to connect the turntable to the two right hand bays in the shed and then had to do bridge work and squeeze in a week of track work at Newport.
We now have another member of the Civil team who is filling in part-time for Will while he is on leave. John McCorkelle started a week or so ago and this week was his “baptism of fire” with the Takeuchi excavator while he shifted materials about and ballasted the track.
Adding ballast, a bucket at a time.
The weather started out a bit bleak, but that didn’t trouble Clive and Malcolm who bravely drilled and screwed rails to point timbers.
Jacks to the fore!
There was quite a dip in the turnout, so it was time to start getting ballast under the timbers. The site was very muddy because of the rain in the morning, so we confined the excavator to delivering rock from a nearby pile to the turnout by rail. This involved filling the bucket, running the excavator onto the turntable, turning it to line up with the new track, then running the excavator onto the new turnout to drop off a bucket of ballast. Lots of times! A slow and tedious process.
Rolf and Clive powering the turntable as part of the ballast delivery.
While the ballast was being delivered we roughly packed it under the point timbers to support the turnout under the excavator and to keep ourselves warm during the process. As the day wore on, the need to keep warm by shovelling went away and we had to resort to storytelling to distract us from the hot and sweaty work.
At the end of play on Thursday, the turnout was ready to connect up to the existing track into the shed.
Willows being trimmed near Johnstone Street Bridge
Thursday was an ideal time to do some tree trimming near Castlemaine, while our gang truck and track tools were still on their way home from Newport. With three chainsaws in action, our first job was to clear as much of the heavy growth inside the curve as we could reach from the track.
From Near the Crossing
Once we cleared what we could from the trackside, we started near the crossing to clear as much as we could to improve the view of Rowe Street for train drivers heading toward Maldon.
Happy Woodcutters at Work.
We cleared between the street and the railway for about 50m so car and train drivers get a much better look at each other. What we cleared was both self-seeded poplars and blackberries and we’ve cleared it so that machinery can do it next time. Further clearing will need the use of a pole-saw because the bank was getting too steep for our sprightly gang of young retirees.
Friday saw more of the same but in a different place. Sorry there are no photos but we forgot to take any!
We started at Maldon Junction where we cleared some scrubby trees on the inside of the curve to allow people on the Gainsborough Street and Sheehan Street pedestrian crossings to see oncoming trains (and our train drivers to see them).
Then it was back towards Maclise Street where we cut down some peppercorn branches on the high side which were hanging over the track almost enough to scratch our carriages – and passengers with their heads out.
We finished off the day by trimming some oak and poplar trees on the inside of the curve between Rowe and Maclise Streets where visibility was poor. We now get a better view of the damaged whistle board for trains going towards Castlemaine. Time to fix it too!
Another successful few days down at Newport, has seen the job basically completed. Only a couple of small little tidying up type things to go, before we start the convey of trucks and digger off on their way home.
Everything replaced and few other dips all received a tamp and tidy up.
It’ll take a few days and a few rains for everything to settle right back down, but it should look nice and presentable for Steamrails upcoming open weekend – which is certainly worth a visit!
Given it’s inevitable that a bit of dirt gets between the blade and stockrail, all those have been blown clean and tested to ensure everything is working as expected.
We even spent all afternoon tightening bolts, lots and lots of bolts, it’s a job that could go on for years, but we’ve tackled the worst of the worst in the areas that get the most use.
Given that we’re more or less done now, there won’t be a workday tomorrow, as we’ll use tomorrow to get things back home. Check back next week for workday details, however there won’t be anything next Tuesday.
VGR Civil Blog 