The last couple of days has seen 142 timber sleepers renewed (almost) on the approach to Maldon.

We still need to actually fasten them up, tamp and tidy up etc… But this week’s work gangs should see this rather long running project come to an end.

We have also replaced 8 point timbers in the 2/3 road turnout at Maldon.

A mixture of new and second hand timber was used, just enough to ensure it’ll hold together for a few more years until we can consider an upgrade.

Still to tamp and tidy up but otherwise complete.

We even a very long lesson from John on how to secure the padlock on the container first time with ease… Unfortunately a little perform anxiety crept in with the gang watching, by chance the speed board you can see behind him pretty well aligned to the number of minutes he spent on the task.

We’ll be into it again tomorrow, meeting at Maldon 8am or near Woodlocks Ln crossing shortly after.

We began the day finishing off the last 13 timber sleeper replacements. That only took us through through to Morning Tea.

We spent the rest of the day tending to rail breaking in Castlemaine Yard to allow for construction of the car park. A few rail posts for door stops were also cut.

The bigger news if the almost completed state of the carriage shed extension.

It looks enormous! And hopefully helps put into perspective the need for all the recent works and alterations to the track work.

Next week we should be back into some real work, with re-sleepering any failed timber in the last km into Maldon the plan. Tuesday will be a workday, starting 8am at Maldon.

Well to complement the good work of installing the 1 in 3 concretes, we really need to replace any failed timber sleepers before we can call the job done.

Which is exactly what today was.

69 failed sleepers from curve 8 to Pyrenees Hwy were replaced.

The majority seemed to be at joints. Unfortunately prior to fitting anchors we experienced just enough rail creep to position a bolt perfectly above the screws preventing access to the screws for removal.

The easy answer is to just cut the screw head off, which what we can see Rolf doing here.

As the sleepers were well spread out it was easiest to work from the truck rather than using our usual array of trollies.

All of the 69 installed have been spiked up and the majority already tamped.

Tomorrow will be a bit more of the same before we head to Castlemaine to help out with a few jobs for the project there.

Meeting Brown Street Ped Crossing around 8.15am.

Today we finished off the urgent re-timbering in Castlemaine Yard, only one more timber installed but a fair amount of gauging and cross-boring was required.

The end result looks pretty snazzy. We do still need to tamp these, however with no trains running there isn’t a great rush.

The shed’s still going along at a great pace, it’s starting to look like it’s almost ready for cladding.

The afternoon was spend removing the fastenings between Midland Hwy and Winters Flat Bridge ready for the concrete sleeper treatment.

Early next week will be a bit all over the place with a few other commitments cropping up, there won’t be a workday on Tuesday but should have some activity on Wednesday if anyone’s at a loose end.