Today was slightly ceremonious, as it saw the last ever rail movement into and out of the Maldon Dock – at least in its previous configuration.

The Dock Road Turnout, timbers and roadbed have reached the end of their serviceable life, so a renewal of some sort was required. However given we’re very hopeful of extending the Maldon Platform in the near future, any extension would prevent the use of the Dock road Turnout.

So the decision was made to remove the turnout, and replace it with plain track, we’ve been planning this for some time and today saw the start of the that process.

Infact after much discussion, it was finally decided that the perfect long term exhibit in the Dock Road would be our very own E 371, previously plinthed at the other end of Maldon Yard.

The VGR Young Volunteers Group set about turning the rusty, dilapidated old E, into nothing short of a work of art! It did take up the workshop space for a few weeks, but hopefully once everyone gets to have a close look, they’ll appreciate just what a massive difference it’s made to the overall appearance of Maldon Yard.

It was a very delicate operation to place the E into the Dock, in exactly the right place so we can, if need be, replace the end wall timbers etc…. and in reality, if anyone’s was to write a big enough cheque for its restoration, it’ll be a very easy crane lift to get it out.

And the reason a crane would be required, is that no sooner had the E gone in than the track started coming out.

We’ve taken everything that could be reasonably taken out, but still allow trains to run tomorrow, so on Thursday we can get all of this out and the new track in before the weekend.

We took lots of pictures of how the annett lock was installed, and we’ve placed all that gear safely away as we expect we’ll need it again one day.

Although we don’t seem to have any pictures of it, we’ve also relocated the old Lamp Room and Red Hut, into the civil compound to become an office and storage space. This has tidied the area up amazingly, certainly worth a visit to see how much better it now looks.

Thursday and Friday we’ll be meeting at Maldon from 8am, where we’ll be full swing into getting the old turnout out and new track in.

In an now well practised tradition, today saw us replace another inner bridge beam, this time at Sawmill Road.

We used the temporary steel C section method once again and we’ve now got this method down to only around half a day, and apart from jacking, there’s almost no manual handling.

Thankfully we were able to get the big digger close enough to the works.

Once out, this was the state of the old beam.

Before long the new beam has been profiled to the right shape and trimmed to exact length.

We’re now quite skilled at forking in the beams and then with a simple flick of the forks, they’re rolled up onto their edge and pushed into position.

A view of the new beam in, while the steel beam packed up giving clearance to the decking still sits beside.

As this method requires us to take out the outter beam also, we took the opportunity to add in some extra termite treatment.

Unfortunately no images of the finished product, however from the outside, it looks identical to the before pics. It was another very successful day.

There won’t be a workday tomorrow, however on Tuesday we’ll be back in Maldon, meeting there from 8am.

Unfortunately no pictures from today, however we did achieve quite a bit, with the new beam for Sawmill Rd bridge delivered to site, the temporary steel support beam has been slewed into position and the necessary bolts loosened and freed up ready for a quick change over on Thursday.

We then set about tightening up the bolts we hadn’t quite got around to yet on Walmer Rd Bridge, which was a nice easy job given the low height of the bridge.

The afternoon was spent having a massive tidy up in the compound area at Maldon, with all the junk taken to the appropriate scrap or rubbish piles, any non civil items placed in more suitable locations and overgrowth trimmed back, giving us far more usable space.

Thursday’s gang will meet at Maldon at 8am then at Sawmill Rd Bridge from 8.30am. Friday is unlikely to be a workday due to an external factor keeping a few of the regulars away, so if you were thinking of coming on Friday, you’d be most welcome on Thursday instead.

We took the opportunity of having a full ballast wagon on hand to tend to a couple of drops today. The first drop was near the site of an old trestle bridge, filled in many decades ago, but as they always do, any remaining timber buried below is now decaying and causing the ground the settle a little.

The second drop was on the site of Yesterday’s work.

After a good lift, tamp and tidyup, it came up looking very smart.

The other site also received the same attention, with a good 2 to 3 inch lift being required, but it certainly looks very smart and rides fantastically now.

We also made use of a works train to drop out sleepers at Pipeline crossing ready for an upcoming rebuild there.

Next week however, we’ll switch our focus to bridges. We had been waiting on a delivery of timber for Sawmill Road, however that’s now on hand. Tuesday we’ll meet at Maldon at 8am, to begin conveying equipment and materials to site ready for Thursday.