Today’s tasks included correcting the only major issue identified between Maldon and Muckleford in last week’s inspection. We had 4 failing sleepers at a joint that were allowing the gauge to widen. But now that we’ve installed 4 concrete sleepers that won’t be an issue!

This wasn’t the end of the works, but it is the end of the pictures, it turns out that a flat mobile phone won’t take pictures.

We then moved to Castlemaine, where an additional 4 concretes were installed in 3 siding, where another cluster of sleepers were allowing very wide gauge. Those two tasks have ticked off the big issues found during the track inspection.

While in Castlemaine, we unbolted the north end of the turntable road and lifted that section of track. We still need to collect up the sleepers, level the roadbed and have the new track location pegged out.

Next week is looking interesting weather wise, so check in Monday night for any details of a Tuesday workday.

Today saw us begin our detailed 6 monthly track inspection.

We’ve walked from Maldon to Sawmill Road, having rectified most issues we found and finding only very minor faults, a great thing given the amount of work that’s gone in.

We got to check out the hive of activity at Bendigo, the civil contractors are busily installing everything below the ground for the flashing lights.

The mast bases and cabinet slab are in, so are all the conduits. Meaning the important electrical components can be installed shortly. The best part of this project is it’s managed by V/Line, so for once we can largely just stand back and watch!

We took it in turns to push the horrid rolling track gauge! But it is certainly a good machine to check gauge everywhere, with one small exception (a couple of failing timber sleepers) there was nothing found to cause any alarm, all going well this will be fixed before the next train anyhow.

We took the opportunity of the big gang to remidy any faults found, largely loose bolts and in a few locations past Muckleford, outer metal biscuits were installed as the nearby timber was starting to hint it wasn’t going to hold gauge for much longer.

Overall though, we’re happy with the initial findings and when the lockdown situation is under control we’ll get back and finish off to Castlemaine, although we’re not expecting to mind any surprises.

Given the latest Covid Lockdown, tomorrow’s workday will be cancelled, however check back next week to see if Tuesday is a goer or not.

Enjoy a safe and happy lockdown!

We made use of today’s rather wet weather to complete the pit timbering on the western pit.

The smaller sections of timber were very manageable by hand, making progress quite fast.

We’ve even tidied up any unevenness in the joints, caused by the warped timber, making it look very smart.

We’ve learnt plenty of lessons for the next pit, which will probably only take a fraction of the time. However it’s almost time to start laying track over this pit and connect it up to the turntable, that’ll occur over the coming months.

Thursday and Friday we’ll be meeting at Maldon at 8am, ready to undertake the 6 monthly detailed track inspection.

We watched a big shed go up today. This is the last of for major structures to go up as part of the project, so an end is in sight.

We started the day off by cutting a nice straight 4.2m point timber into 2 2.1m pit timbers. These are for the end pieces, which we will install on Tuesday during the predicted rain.

In the afternoon we did a few odd jobs, one of which was extending the 2nd turntable road by another couple of rail lengths.

We also cleaned and lubricated several of the turnouts, tidied up our worksites and pulled the hi-rail gear off the back of the takeuchi, so it can receive some maintenance.

Tuesday next week we’ll be in the locoshed finishing the pit timbers, meeting there from 8am.

Thursday and Friday we’ll be undertaking our detailed track inspection, for which we’ll be meeting at Maldon at 8am.