Today was a very busy day. An enormous amount of rail has been cut and stacked beside the track.

We have in fact cut all of the loose rail that required it, with only around 15 loose lengths still remaining (they just need unbolting) and the section from Moscript to the Junction to be sled and we’ll have all the rail onto our railway! A massive effort.

A nice morning was followed by a nice day. Both diggers were in fine form after being freshly serviced and some new tyres fitted to the little digger it was like poetry in motion. We did have a couple of little hiccups but nothing that cost us more than a few minutes.

We had so many people today, so we broke into two groups, one loosening bolts and removing the last of the anchors, the other cutting rail.

The rail cutting gang consisted of a new crew.

Our railway is playing host to a pilot training scheme for people looking for a career in railway maintenance. We’re able to offer the trainees the hands on experience they otherwise wouldn’t be able to get, unless they had already secured a job in the industry. So far they’re proving extremely keen and a value to our workforce! Keep up the great work lads.

The anchor removers, we’ve decided this is the worst job of whole project, did a massive effort, leave only a few hundred metres to go tomorrow before we can start sledding.

Believe it or not, all the coloured marks do mean something, it’s largely for sorting into stockpiles and ensuring we install the correct (generally previously unused) running edge.

And just because all that wasn’t enough, we threw a train into the mix! Another 35 odd 80lb rails were loaded up to give us enough room to continue stacking rail. There haven’t yet been dropped out, that’ll be on a quiet day next week.

All that rail towing has seen a significant groove dug into the pedestrian crossings, so that was remedied before we left the site.

After a massive day’s effort from everyone, a nice shady spot was found for a wind down cuppa.

We’ll be back out tomorrow from 8.15am at the junction breaking up the last few loose rails and removing more anchors.

Another extremely successful day of rail cutting. We’ve now got only around 30 rails left to cut which should be easily accomplished over the next couple of days

We will be running a rail train tomorrow, mainly because we really need to clear some rail to give us more room to store all this rail as it gets cut around the Junction.

Meeting tomorrow from 8.15am at Maldon Junction.

Another extremely successful day of rail cutting. We’ve now got only around 30 rails left to cut which should be easily accomplished over the next couple of days

We will be running a rail train tomorrow, mainly because we really need to clear some rail to give us more room to store all this rail as it gets cut around the Junction.

Meeting tomorrow from 8.15am at Maldon Junction.

Rail cutting and stacking, that was the game today.

We’ve re-hired the bandsaw and this time around the boys are so quick, the diggers just can’t keep up with their rate of progress!

We didn’t do an exact stocktake of what we cut today (maybe around 20ish rails, but at least a further 5 with joints were broken which slows the rate a little), but it would appear based on the rate the rail is needing to be fed up the hill, we may come close to getting most of the loose rail cut this week, which is very promising.

We’ll be here doing exactly this for the next three days, so please feel free to come and see what all the fuss is about. From 8.15am at the Junction.