Another very successful day, with another lot of rails successfully dragged over Moscript St. Now almost filling the gap between the Junction and Moscript St.

Next week we’ll begin preparing rails for loading onto the train ready to be taken out to where they’ll be needed.

Tomorrow however, we’ll be starting at Stephen St. Dragging over what we can, however there’s only half a day’s work there, so hopefully after lunch we’ll be back into sledding. Meeting Stephen St. from 8.15am.

This week has seen lots of rail towed, some more lineside mowing around Muckleford and a bit of ballast brooming.

Today was successful in getting another lot of rails over Stephen Street as well as almost dragging all the remain loose rails up to there also.

Monday saw the Muckleford area lineside grass trimmed, making a significant improvement. The rail transport wagons have also had their great stacks of rails and sleepers removed ready for moving rail in the coming weeks.

As part of the re-railing process, we’ve decided to have the whole section to be re-railed broomed. (Muckleford to Winters Flat Bridge basically).

We hired in a specialised excavator attachment that does exactly that, sweeps the ballast from around the fastenings for much easier access when it’s time to re-rail.

It also gives us a smooth strip next to the existing rail to drop out the new rail, allowing it to sit as low as possible. It would be nice to have one of these of our own so we can make the onerous job of ballast clearing that much easier, hopefully one day. This job would take blokes with blowers and forks literally weeks, whereas the attachment took only a few hours!

The attachment works extremely well, leaving a very clear area around the fastenings and a nice windrow down the centre, useful for down the track when we need a bit of rock to lift out small dips etc…

Tomorrow will see us crossing Moscript St. again, meeting there from 8.15am.

By lunch time it became evident that we stood a real chance of sledding and dragging everything still remaining over Fryers Rd. The pic above shows the very last rail making it’s way over Fryers Rd.

That’s another major leap forward, with the task now that bit easier with another level crossing behind us.

Still lots of cleaning up to do, but we’ve certainly broken the back of the job now.

Approx 45 rails were towed over Fryers Rd today, with 12 of those still in the track before lunch. We’ve got the operation down pat now.

Next week is a short week due to Melbourne Cup, however in essence Monday will be rail towing, Wednesday we’ll tow over Stephen St, Thursday over Moscript St. and Friday will either be a tidy up day or starting to prepare rail for loading onto trains.

Another lot of rails (approx 50) were transferred over Moscript St. today. It all went very well, finishing before the arrival of the rain.

We also sent Bruce out to whipper snip around Wintersflat Bridge, which now looks much more presentable.

A keen eye might note in the lower right hand corner of the second pic a sizable drain.

It’s not very obvious but the drain now has a couple of interesting tyre marks….

After being pleasantly pleased with his grass trimming work and obviously admiring it a little too much, Bruce managed to gently place his trusty ute nose first into this drain.

Thankfully no damage or injury but well stuck! The trusty crew at Parsons Towing right next door saw the event unfold and were there to tow him out in no time. It certainly gave the gang a good laugh over lunch! And we should note we now carry an extra tow rope in our gear as this isn’t his first successful attempt at getting the ute into a tricky spot.

Tomorrow we’ll be towing over Fryers Rd from 8.15am