We had a very successful day today, with around 75 concrete sleepers inserted under the track for tomorrow’s crew to clip up.
We’ve still a few to install from the outer departure signal to the Vline Turnout and good few to install into 3 road where we’re close to Vline.
Quite a bit of the messy foliage beside the track has been attacked. Typically we can’t get out there to do this work, however, while it’s all under occupation with no trains it’s an ideal time.
Vline is undertaking lots of work during this shutdown, with lots going on at two of our shared bridges. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to grab a few snaps tomorrow to show off the works.
There is plenty of work for tomorrow’s crew, we’ll be meeting at 7.45am down in the Depot at Castlemaine before we head out on site to continue inserting and begin clipping up.
It was such an amazing and action packed day of moving stuff around ahead of the works next week that we forgot to get pictures!
It wasn’t really all that exciting unfortunately… however everything is well placed to hit the ground running on Monday Morning.
We’ll be meeting at the Castlemaine Depot around 7.45am on Monday, and out on site from around 8.15am (roughly). There will be action at Castlemaine every weekday next week so please feel free to come along and check it out.
We had quite a big day today, preparing for an intensive week of sleeper and point timbers replacements in the track parallel with V/Line in Castlemaine.
V/line is undertaking various works on the Bendigo line from the 22nd Feb until the 6th March, which gives us an ideal opportunity to remove as many of the remaining timber sleepers as possible.
We’ll also use the chance to renew some point timbers and get on top of a few foliage issues.
Next week, we’ll have workdays every weekday, starting at the Castlemaine Depot at 7.30am or out on the worksite around 8am, all being well we’ll comfortably knock it over in a few days, but it’s always best to built in some contingency.
Tomorrow’s crew will be starting at Maldon to bring in a works train, loaded with sleepers and point timbers, in readiness for the works. Meeting at Maldon 8am.
The bridge is now far straighter than it was previously, we weren’t as successful with the rail adjustment as we’d hoped, with the rather cool change on Thursday evening shrinking the rail quite significantly, we were able to trim a good 20mm, which should certainly remove any excess stress. We’ll fix this up much more definitely when we rerail.
Quite a few other bolting, tightening and maintenance jobs were ticked off on Friday, with all but one troublesome bolt now corrected.
You would think it could make such a difference. However, being able to use the tele to gain a few inches in height makes the job infinitely easier, we were surprised how invaluable this tool has become!
One of the long-standing issues has been with the escapes. Their location has always been awkward to gain access to ensure tightness, etc… however for the first time in years we were able to very safely access all the angles for effective tightening – hopefully they never get needed, but it’s nice to know they’re quite sturdy and safe should they ever be requires. One escape has had a brace fitted to further sturdy things up. It had become loose also, so it’s now very firmly affixed and packed in place.
We’ve still got a couple of small jobs to tend to on the bridge tomorrow, mainly related to some minor deck holes that will be quite easy to patch. We’ll then be going onto getting equipment into Castlemaine in preparation for next week’s big effort next to Vline to remove a large number of the remaining timber sleepers. Meeting at Maldon 8am or the Bridge from 8.45am
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