As predicted, a good sized gang was on hand today and we comfortably installed the last 5 lengths of 94lb rail in the UP leg of the straight. Another 275m of rail.

Between us we all managed to forget to take photos of the actual work, but plenty of the finished product.

Today’s progress is a good indication that we should be able to install all 12 lengths required to complete the Down leg on Thursday and Friday this week. On Thursday we’ll meet at Maldon at 7.45am or on site – Farmers Bridge – from 8.15am, there’s little to no need to meet at Maldon unless you’d like a lift to site.

Today saw excellent progress made with 385m of 94lb rail installed.

The day started off extremely picturesquely, only just above freezing temperature but still very pleasant.

Before long we’d flicked out the 60lb that had been unfastened yesterday and dropped in the 94lb.

Given it was looking like we were in for a very early finish, we decided we could successful achieve another 3 x 55m lengths of 94lb (making a total of 7 lengths over the two days), which given our relatively small crews on both days is an excellent effort.

There’s only 5 more lengths of 94lb to install in the UP leg and we’ll be at the curve, then we’ll jump over to the Down leg and head for the curve again.

If numbers are good on Tuesday, there’s no reason we won’t complete the 5 lengths in the UP leg. Meeting Maldon 8am or out on site from 8.30am.

With a good number of other projects now out of the way, we’re head long back into rerailing.

Given the very systematic nature of the task, we spent the morning preparing as much as we could up to the straight, with our aim being to get this completed over the coming weeks. We began by removing fishplates and lubricating the joints.

We then set about correcting a slight rail joint location anomaly, where all the joints were going to fall on top of a concrete sleeper, a sort length of the existing rail was removed and to keep the digger able to pass over, the holes were drilled first to save time.

We’ve distributed clips and equipment as required along the job to reduce the instances of double handling etc.

After lunch we were ready to begin unfastening the 60lb and getting the 94lb in.

As yet we’ve only bolted up the first 55m length of 94lb and slewed it into position, ready for tomorrow’s crew to clip up while the next lengths are installed.

And just because we could, we decided to back the truck into an old pile of fencing wire so we could spend several moments thoroughly enthralled in a detangling effort! No damage done however.

Tomorrow’s crew will be meeting on site near Farmers Bridge from 8.15am. Where hopefully we’ll get a good few lengths of rail installed.

Occasionally we still do a little external contracting, if it fits in with the works program.

The past two days we’ve had the little digger and Will over at Ballarat Tramways doing some fiddly jobs, mainly in relation to get the last two bays of the old shed into a condition where a slab could be poured to replace the gravel floor.

It was a fairly fiddly job, pulling up the last of the old track and digging out all the gravel, 1 bucket at a time, to the correct depth. The little digger turned out to be the perfect size for the job.

Once everything was cleaned out, the new rail was manoeuvred in and the joining up work began.

While there, the digger was used to do an enormous amount of site clean up following the huge works that have been happening around the depot – check out the Tramways website and Facebook for the full run down.

The digger’s going to hang on there for a few more days to be available to load material onto trucks and the like, while they prepare the new track enough to stable this tram back in the shed.

Back on the VGR, unfortunately no pictures from today’s works, but we’ll be into rerailing again from Thursday, meeting Maldon 8am or near Farmers Bridge from 8.30am.