Another big day of rail moving, with 6 lengths towed up to the next crossing and several more towed to about half way.

The morning saw us effecting some temporary repairs to a few sections of wide gauge. We simply pinched some reasonable sleepers from the already dismantled sections to replace the failed ones.

We even have this mighty heat buckle to contend with! We’ve installed 4 sleepers throughout it to ensure it holds gauge. While the diggers are still happy to negotiate it (which they both do quite well), we don’t think it’s worth the effort to fix.

We’ll be taking Monday off (Public Holiday), back into it on Tuesday and Wednesday though, however Thursday will be back at Castlemaine installing the handrail on the wall and breaking up old 60lb rail (weather permitting). Friday next week will be a day off due to a few people being away.

Tuesday’s crew will leaving Maldon around 8am or meet on site (Yapeen) at 8.30am.

 

 

The first crossing, over which we dragged around 2.9km of rail today.

This is the Yapeen – Vaughan Springs Rd, very near to the Midland Hwy.

With all the rail past this point free and ready to come across the crossing, we enlisted some traffic management and set to it!

The big digger proved it’s worth almost instantly, being the weapon of choice.

(even a little video to show off)

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) the rail through the crossings was removed a few years ago. The down side was every rail dragged required getting off and on as the crossing was too wide to just reach over.

We began the day with our fancy rollers to protect the road… Then by accident discovered that a sleeper either side of the roadway was far easier.

All the rail and the sled have been moved across the crossing. There was actually only about 40 lengths of rail, but when they’re 80m long each it soon adds up to a lot of rail.

We also had the little digger dragging rail away from the crossing up the next hill, but the wet weather and lower grunt made it a little less practical.

Tomorrow will be another rail towing day, up towards the next crossing, another 1.5kms ish. It’ll require a bit of track work to ensure gauge will hold. Meeting Maldon at 7.45am or site from 8.15am (Yapeen Crossing).

Well we’ve started pulling up track in a serious way!

We’ve managed to borrow a rail sled, which has trippled the speed of lifting the rail, with the trade off that the roadbed isn’t left quite as smooth, but still drive-able.

We’ve draughted in the big Hyundai Excavator for extra grunt and boy has that made a difference.

With only a gang of 3, we’ve lifted around 800m of rail and dragged about 5 times that down to the first crossing, ready for dragging across tomorrow.

This is what’s left behind after sledding, the odd sleeper lifts, but we’ve found if we leave a couple of rails in the 5 foot, that issues reduces.

Lots of jewellery still to collect, but we’ll get there, great job for cooler weather.

The takeuchi was even treated to 4 new tyres! The old ones were well past their use by date.

Tomorrow will be a big day, with two diggers in use dragging rail across Yapeen – Vaughan Springs Rd. We hope to do it in half a day, but who can really tell without trying it.

Any extra hands will be put to use, helping prepare rails for towing, guiding with bars, working ahead loosening anchors and bolts etc…

Meeting Maldon 7.30 or Yapeen (look for the big stockpile of rail) around 8am.

Another successful day, with another 300m of track unspiked and dragged up to the first crossing.

The day began with anchor removal, which was much easier in the cooler weather.

We’re starting to get the hang of it now, getting 2 X 80m rails unspiked in around 30mins (versus the hour when we started).

Were now into full lengths of rail without joints, which also speeds things up considerably (also easier to drag).

It’s been a very successful week, which hopefully we can replicate next week! It’ll be all systems go from Tuesday. Please join us if you can.

Don’t forget tomorrow’s Civil Saturday at Castlemaine, the weather is looking good so join Trevor and the crew from 8.30am at the big red shed.