Today saw the Dock Road turnout removed. Unfortunately, it also saw a lot of wet and miserable weather.

The last few bolts were unfastened, before the big digger was called in to lift the turnout out in lumps.

This allowed all the spikes and screws to be dealt with out of the way of the earthworks.

The top layer of fouled ballast was excavated until we hit clean gravel road-base, which was actually not far below the bottom of sleeper level.

The real cause of the track failure in the turnout was the lack of drainage, so to prevent a recurrence, we’ve installed a drain the full length of the works and extending into the sump pump collection area so the water can be more effectively removed from the track.

We even took the opportunity to cover the ground with geofabric, in the hope it might at least slow the clay from working back up through.

A keen eye will note a ballast train stabled in the platform, this was brought up last night by the light engine move. We’ll need that tomorrow to ballast the new track, but we also needed it today to access a bit of rock to cover the drainage pipe.

In no time at all, we’d laid out the sleepers, all 2nd hand timber of reasonable quality. The new rails were cut into the existing track. The new rail is 60lb AS, an improved version of the 60lb D we have been replacing elsewhere, however we only have a very small amount of it, so we’re saving it for historically significant places such as 1 road at Maldon.

These rails are in twice the length of the old rail and with much better fishplates, which is what’s being tended to here.

We chose to cut the old remaining 60lb D rather than shortening the longer rails, this resulted in cuts being needed both ends of the job to ensure we maintained appropriate rail lengths in the old 60lb D.

And by close of play, we’d joined up all the rails and completely drilled and screwed down one leg of the new track.

We’ve got a bit of lining to do first thing tomorrow, before gauging and fastening up the other leg. Then we’ll run out a few wagons of ballast, before jacking and tamping, hopefully all done well before knock off time!

We are looking a bit light on for numbers tomorrow, so any extra hands would be appreciated. Meeting at Maldon from 8an

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.