A bit of a cold start today, with a decent frost covering the countryside.

Despite the old morning, the day proved quite pleasant and so far this week 60 sleepers have been installed and clipped, leaving only 60 to be installed tomorrow.

We’re now comfortably into the straight towards Donkey Farm Track, with about 850 sleepers still required to reach the crossing.

In our ongoing quest to continue the resleepering program, our fundraising appeal is still plugging along quite well – with $76,500 raised since the 1st April 2024. Our target still remains at $250,000.

With the end of the financial year approaching, it’s not too late to make a tax deductible donation. All donations over $2 are tax deductible, and we would be appreciative of any extra assistance towards our appeal.

https://www.vgr.com.au/donate

Tomorrow’s crew will meet at Maldon at 8am then out on site around 8.30am.

We ended up outperforming our expectations this week, with 128 concretes installed in total this week.

Today saw an additional 40 sleepers added to the sights – which took us to the end of Curve 16.

The spot pictured here marks the half way point between Pipeline Crossing and Donkey Farm Track – seems like we’ve been going forever to get here, however now that Donkey Farm Track is well within sight, it doesn’t seem anywhere near as daunting.

The usual jacking and packing parade followed the insertions, and it’s nowhere near perfect. However, it is significantly better than it was before we started this work.

It’s just here to Muckleford to go now… at least Donkey Farm Track for this year and at the rate were going it’s extremely achievable.

Next week might be a bit less resleepering and a bit more preparation as we’ve pretty much used up the ready sleepers. All gangs next week (Monday to Thursday) meeting Maldon at 8am or out on site – probably best to come in via Donkey Farm Track now from about 8.30am.

Another 24 concrete sleepers were installed and clipped up in Curve 16 today, with the balance to be installed tomorrow and being well, another few before the week is out. Although it hasn’t been a high sleeper week, a lot more fishplate changes have occurred down towards Donkey Farm Trk and that is all critical to getting the job done.

There will be workdays tomorrow and Thursday, both starting at Maldon at 8am or on site from 8.30am.

Sorry, we’ve been a bit absent online this week – we’ve had a few away and others working on some other tasks on the railway, however that doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy.

Because of the extra commitments, we elected to only install 89 sleepers this week, which also involved moving a few rails etc etc..

Up to today, the crews have been busy dropping out more sleepers lineside and managed to 1 in 2 sleepers inserted under and half of those clipped up.

Today saw us clip up and install the rest.

It’s all a pretty regular activity now.

We found time to sort the good from the not so good wood, placing them in piles for later collection.

A considerable amount of jacking and packing was required through here, unfortunately we didn’t get a good before shot to show just how bad it had become – another old bridge or probably just large culvert filled many many moons ago that was settling. But it’s come up very nicely all considered now.

A run-through saw the scrappy wood collected and piled up, otherwise its a job we just never get the time to come back to.

The afternoon was a bit of general vehicle maintenance, with the approx 10 year old batteries in the big digger replaced with new ones – it starts now! The truck needed some more puff in its rear tyres – which is so easy since we set our side of the Maldon depot up with Water and Air.

Next week will be a little different – still focusing heavily on the concrete sleepers, but more in regards to preparing the next few hundred metres to give us a clear run later in May – we’ll probably need an extra truck driver Monday morning if you’re seeing this Mick.