What started a little gloomy turned into a nice day. For the remainder of the inspection we started at Castlemaine and headed through to Muckleford.

A few loose bolts but only a handful were found on the whole inspection.

Only a few minor gauge faults were found, which is always nice.

The main faults were at the concrete sleepers on the 60lb, none were critical, but we’ve installed outer biscuits at each fault as a safeguard.

The only other issue was some wide gauge in Castlemaine Yard which, given we won’t get to resleepeeing in the immediate future, we’ve crossbored it back to gauge to tide us over.

Tomorrow we’ll be in Ballarat doing a little work on Steamrail’s Turntable there, it’s only a very small job and doesn’t require many hands, but you’re welcome to join, meeting at the old Ballarat East Station area around 10am.

Today saw us begin the walking track inspection. Maldon to Muckleford was completed, with a number of faults found, no show stoppers, but things that we’ll need to get to over the coming month.

All going well, we’ll conclude the Walk from Castlemaine to Muckleford on Thursday, however it’s looking like the weather has other plans, so check back tomorrow night for details.

A busy day for today’s gang of 3, with the final 7 timbers spiked up, everything tamped, including removing a big dip in the turnout and everything boxed and tidied up.

A reasonable amount of gauging was required down by the crossing and as a result everything now runs through much more smoothly. Although nothing was out of tolerance before, it didn’t all sit in a nice straight line, however it does now.

Some of the timbers came out in reasonable condition, but a good number came out like this!

After a really thorough tidy up and lots of shovelling to fill the tamping voids, it has come up looking a treat.

And just I’m time too, as not half an hour after we finished, a Steam Loco from Maldon arrived, ready to haul a wedding special.

Check back on Monday for details of Tuesday’s workday.

A slight change of plans, due to our assistance being required at Castlemaine to help change a carriage generator. So we tackled point timbers.

A load of timber was brought down from Maldon, then destruction began removing the old timbers.

Before long it was pull out the old and stick in the new.

Where possible we used pandrol plates, to improve gauge holding.

Lots of gauge correction was required as it was starting to work wide.

And the reason for the train in the background, was the fitting of this replacement genset under the carriage Macedon.

Of the 13 timbers we changed today, 6 have been fastened up, leaving 7 for tomorrow’s gang. Meeting at Castlemaine from 8.15am