It was a glorious day for a ballast drop.

We started by Winters Flat Bridge and have dropped a light skim over everything to Pyrenees Hwy.

Unfortunately because all hands were busy controlling wagons, only one shot of the actual ballasting in progress.

But plenty of after shots! We did do larger drops in the sections that need more lifting than others, hence the larger shoulder profile, which we’ll bring back in to use as final ballast after a good lift and tamp.

The ballast dropping is quite a fast process, the train moves along at Walking Pace, to allow controlled discharge from the wagons, while Daylesford’s plough, coupled on behind spreads the rock very evenly and forms an excellent shoulder of ballast at the sleeper ends.

Our aim with this section of track, which has quite a good ballast profile already is to do a drop like this, followed by a 2 to 3 inch general lift (ideally using a production tamper), which means the lower spots will come up more like 6 inches to form a smooth top and hence will require more ballast. We’re hoping there is sufficient ballast on the ground for that process with this drop, but no doubt there will be some places we’ll need to drop a little more following the tamping pass.

In the afternoon we decided we just hadn’t had enough of the ballasting fun so we dragged the rake up to Maldon and had it loaded up again, from the small stockpile we have there. This rock is destined for Curve 21 and we’ll be dropping it out on Friday Morning, so we need to get as many sleepers replaced between now and then!

We made use of the move to transport another 130ish full profile concrete sleepers up to curve 21 so we can get on and complete that job, hopefully this week.

A very productive Monday and hopefully we can follow that up with a productive Tuesday. We’re hoping to get another 100 or so concrete sleepers installed into Curve 21. Meeting Maldon 8am or at Curve 21 from 8.15am.

Another very successful day today, with 103 concrete sleepers inserted into Curve 21. It’s a little hard to tell, but we started at the whistle post in the distance and finished right where the truck is parked, certainly more than half the curve is completed now.

It was done in the same style as per previous, however this time we left about 1 in 4 timber spiked up to help with gauge and line, then the usual jacking of the track so the big concrete sleepers sat at the same height as the old timber sleepers, with the rails now sitting several inches higher. We did loose the line of the curve a little, but that was easily returned with a push or two from the digger.

Hopefully on Monday we’ll get a train load of ballast over this and we can then work through and get a nice smooth top to the curve.

Tomorrow is looking wet wet wet, so there won’t be a workday, however we should have something on Monday and Tuesday next week.

Today started at Muckleford, with approx 60t of sleepers plates, anchors and dog spikes loaded onto trucks and transported to the Bellarine Railway.

They’re currently undertaking similar track upgrades to us, where they’re replacing old rail for newer 80lb rail. Check out their website bellarinerailway.com.au to find out what exciting things they’re up to!

As we’re making the transition to more concrete sleepers and given we’ve amassed more of these items from various recovery projects over the years than we now have a use for, it’s great to be able to support another Railway with their efforts, something we hope we can do a lot more of.

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All of these plates might look familiar, as they’re those which we collected from the Guildford Track during the rail recovery. We knew we didn’t have much need for them, but we had a feeling making sure they didn’t go to scrap was a good idea.

We wish them the very best of luck in their upgrades and look forward to being able to help them and the other railways further as time goes by.

The real purpose of having the big loader on site was to load the Ballast Train, with the first 120t of rock from the recovered ballast.

We weren’t able to drop it out today, as you’ll see why shortly, however it’s now ready to go at a moments notice to top dress the recently re-railed section, to ensure it stays put over summer and enables us to lift dips and low sections to improve the track to a very high standard.

They’re a very smart looking rake of hoppers all loaded up, here remarshalled to be in a usable order. Daylesford’s plough at the end really just sets it off, great little bit of gear and something we feel privileged to have access to.

We’ll feature this ballast drop and just why it’s so important in the next week hopefully, when we get this rock onto the otherwise completed upgraded section of track.

Besides picking up jewellery around Pyrenees Hwy Bridge (we did end up re-railing the high leg over the bridge with a long rail, to fill in a day we’d reserved for Castlemaine works but couldn’t use on Friday), there were several strings of rail, both short lengths of 80lb and a bit of 60lb that needed breaking into lengths so they could be stacked strategically trackside.

Dropping ballast while there are rails in the middle is quite a challenge and impossible to plough. So removing these was a slightly higher priority than dropping rock just yet. While the ballast profile is generally OK in this section, we are aiming for at least a 50mm lift and a slight increase in ballast shoulder now that we’re using longer rails (which do need some additional lateral restraint compared with short rails, especially in hot weather).

And besides all that, we found time to start sorting a pile of jewellery at Muckleford in drums and transport this carriage – Acheron, to the loco shed at Castlemaine so further works can be carried out in it’s restoration.

There’s lots happening and we’re hoping to continue re-sleepering curve 21 (near Bendigo Rd) Thursday and Friday, however due to the recent Castlemaine focus, all the needed gear is at Castlemaine, so we’ll start there at 8.30, load up everything we need and then make our way down to Maldon at around morning tea time hopefully. This project will also need a ballast drop, so we’re hoping to get a few ducks lined up so we can get into ballast train mode for a few days.

The updates have a bit quiet this week, partly due to the reduction in workforce due to Covid and partly because it was just one of those weeks where little things seemed to go wrong, nothing major but enough to slow down progress.

After a couple of attempts we finally managed to get the long 41m 94lb rails delivered to Castlemaine Yard for the new workshop, lots of other bits and were moved around also, getting ready for upcoming jobs.

These rails are from Rowe Street crossing, replaced during the rebuild. They aren’t good enough to reuse in the track, but they’re ideal in a location like this.

Today’s job was locating the rails over a pre-poured slab in the new workshop, ready for the top slab pour.

We’ve used a very highly technical method of installing concrete screws beside the rail, much like dog screws in timber. Unfortunately due to a slight mistake in the setting out, the steel reinforcement in the concrete was exactly below where the screws needed to go! So they had to stick up a few inches which doesn’t matter in the slightest as all of this will be held in place by concrete, the screws are just locators to prevent rail movement during the pour.

We’ll be back at Castlemaine tomorrow, we’ve got a few jobs to do there and then depending on how we go, we’ve got a couple of jobs left to do out near Pyrenees Hwy Bridge which we might tend to. Meeting Castlemaine Yard 8.15am.