Another very successful day, with 490m of rail installed (245m in each leg) into Tangent 10-11. We’re about 2/3 of the way along this straight now.

We had done some preparation here on Tuesday, however screws and clips still had to come off.

Interestingly this length, although no record breaker, did turn out to be quite a comfortable length to walk, as the truck and smoko weren’t too far away, which they end up being when we do a longer length on only one leg.

The Down leg was tackled first, all done and clipped up by 11, with the up leg then keeping us busy through until knock off time.

We have actually also managed a bit of preparation for tomorrow, with another length just needing the screws and spikes removed to install. We’re yet to cut in both closure rails, however we thought we’d see how we go for numbers as if there’s a few of us, we might tackle another few lengths as well.

Meeting on site 8.15am, come in from either Muckleford station or Sawmill Rd.

As hoped, today saw the rerailing of Curve 11 completed and in fact we installed an additional length of rail in that leg also.

We also installed a further 2 rails in the other leg, taking today’s total up to 5 rails or a total distance of 220m. We had all that completed and finished off by lunch time.

The afternoon was spent preparing the next few hundred metres of the straight, we’ve removed anchors and dog spikes, with just the screws and concrete sleepers to go on Thursday. We’ve also drilled and prepared the rails that are to go in, so hopefully we’ll get another 6 lengths in each leg over Thursday / Friday.

No additional pictures today, mainly because we just forgot. However we’re now well into the straight and with any luck by Friday we’ll be well over half way along the straight, possibly even a little better if we get a few extra bodies.

Thursday’s Gang, meeting Maldon 7.45am or on-site from 8.15am.

Today’s small gang of 3 managed another quite impressive feat of 155m of rerailing.

A nice steady methodical plod saw it all come together without too much back breaking slog.

We did find it was easier to place every tool one could possibly need on the excavator, we think it’s probably time to build a removable shelf to hang out the front to give us a slightly more organised storage area.

By day’s end, we’d achieved a considerable amount, with only 2 rails left now to complete the curve, which should easily be managed on Tuesday.

After publishing yesterday’s blog, while updating the records, it became obvious that the 573m of rail that was installed yesterday was infact an all time daily record and by quite an amount! The previous record was only 385m…

So we are certainly getting into our stride with this job now. It would be a little unrealistic to think we can sustain this pace forever, but it would be reasonable to assume with sufficient preparation, we could regularly achieve 600-700m a week comfortably.

Monday had been listed as a workday, however the weather is looking wet, so we’ll cancel that, however Tuesday is still a goer, meeting Maldon 8am or at curve 11 from 8.30am.

A nice chilly start to the day, with a bit of ice gracing the head of the rail

We set about re-railing the high leg of Curve 11 and achieved excellent progress.

Pure excitement was the feeling that seemed to overcome the gang this morning! We’re really getting into our stride with the rerailing now and it seems to run like clockwork.

We’d prepared on Tuesday by removing all screws and anchors, which took about half a day, which as we learnt today is really more effort and time than the actual re-railing.

We did trim one or two rails to correct the joint locations at the sleepers, but generally joints fell very appropriately between sleepers.

The clipping up gang was able to keep hot on the heels of the digger and its crew slewing in the new rails and bolting the next length on.

We reached our intended end point ahead of lunch time, having completed 393m of rerailing.

So as soon as lunch was over, we set about getting underway on the low leg, we had only removed the anchors here, so a bit of time was spent removing screws.

Again one cut was required to correct a joint, but otherwise all was good, luckily it was at the only spot we could get the truck close.

We managed to install and clip up 180m of rail in the low leg, which is almost half the curve. In this pic the digger is sitting right at the end of the completed work.

As yet we haven’t joined this afternoon’s work into the old rail as depending on numbers tomorrow, we might be in a position to tackle at least a few more lengths.

Tomorrow’s crew will be meeting on site at Curve 11 (near the gas pipeline) from 8.15am.