Started off as a wheely good day!

Having to replace not 1 but 2 flats on the big digger – it’s bizarre, it can be years between tyres then they all come at once.

Anyhow, that was fixed up pretty smartly and we were back in action.

The aim today was to improve the line of the track over the bridge, a thing that happens mainly due to crippled rails on the bridge and the aging timber allows just enough movement for it to look ugly.

We’ve got plans to rerail. However, if we do that, we really need to resleeper also… and if we do that, we’ll disturb the deck, and it’ll need a full renewal… it’s never an easy fix on a bridge, however its perfectly safe for another few years undisturbed, and we’ve got more than enough on our plate for the next few years.

So in the interim, to improve things, we had a run of rail joints on the bridge with minimal gaps, so to help reduce the rail stress on the bridge, we’ve broken the track and allowed it to breath. Normally, we’d allow that to happen and then cut out the excess rail. However, today was a total fire ban, so cutting wasn’t an option.

It looks very strange with the rails parted like this, however the clearance is needed to ensure the rails can move unhindered.

With a bit of encouragement from the digger and the weather, the rails on the bridge did grow a little, we were hoping for a bit more as now we’ll need to cut some fiddly closures, rather than just cutting off behind the first bolt hole. We’ve got a few more joints back the other way to chase tomorrow, so we might still get it.

This doesn’t appear to be a big issue with rail creep, rather that rails on the bridge have always been tight, and being crippled it’s bound to keep occurring.

While we waited for the weather to heat the rail up sufficiently, we tended to a number of very minor issues on the bridge, mainly related to loose bolts. This is a job that is never ending, however a good number were tightened today.

As part of the bridge lining works we did shift the deck in a couple of places, only a few mm, but to ensure it didn’t move back, some blocks were installed against the beams.

In three instances replacement bolts are required, due to damage or ineffective threads (some of these are very old bolts).

We’ve got one more to replace tomorrow as well as cutting and joining up the rails once again. We forgot to grab a pick of the much better track alignment over the bridge, however we’ll endeavour to capture that tomorrow.

First job tomorrow however, is to refit the little digger’s fixed quick hitch cylinder. It was collected this afternoon and we’ve been told to make sure it works incase any adjustments are needed.

Tomorrow’s crew will meet at Maldon at 8am, depending how we go, we might not be out on site until 9am, hopefully earlier.

Sorting sleepers is a job best described as dull, if not extremely dull.

While the little digger is off on sick leave, the telehandler has been called in to deputise. It actually worked extremely well. However, it does require some relatively level ground, which we certainly don’t have everywhere.

The sorting component is required with these fastclip sleepers as they need to be preloaded prior to use. Throughout their many moves before arriving here, some have lost some bits or have damage, its best we’ve found to remove these issues at stock piles rather than spread out sleepers that aren’t easily used beside the track.

The tele was good for getting them off the stack, checking over for any needed fixing or rejecting, then making it easy for the digger to grab them up and run them out to their new home or stack aside for dealing with later on.

Today’s efforts, although only really a few hours, did get us enough prepared and dropped out to reach the culvert near Pipeline Crossing, a good few hundred metres. Only around 1200m to go to get to Donkey Farm Trk! We’ll be busy for a while yet.

Today’s work took place around a Driver Experience Train, whose participants happily obliged to allow it to double as a works train, bringing a wagon load of sleepers out from Muckleford. These were unloaded a little further around the curve, for distribution as required in the coming weeks.

We would highly recommend the Driver Experience Packages, all the participants seem to have a fantastic day and its great to be able to give people the chance to check out our hard a little more first hand. Check out the VGR website for all the Details –  https://www.vgr.com.au/drive-a-train

Thursday crew will be down at Muckleford Creek Bridge, starting at Maldon at 8am then all being well down at the Bridge around 8.30am.

Sorry about the delayed blog, however we did managed to have a good day on Friday, with the track work portion of 3 road completed.

It began very hot, very quickly on Friday, meaning it was only a half day workday, otherwise it was most probably we’d have had a few on the bench with heatstroke.

We managed to find the energy to do a decent tidy up of the area, with all the little loose items put away and general mess removed.

We’re yet to ballast and tamp this new track, that’s when we’ll worry about getting the line correct, the clearances here were historically extremely tight… so we’ll try improve that if possible and if not then the fence will need moving.

Tomorrow’s workday will be out by Pipeline Crossing, preparing concrete sleepers in aid of the big effort that’ll begin in March. Meeting Maldon 8am or on site from 8.30am

Today began making use of the morning cool to get a bit more of 3 road back in place.

It’s a bit clunky getting old VR type steel sleepers clipped to the various weights of rail we have in 3 Road, a combination of 60AD, 60D and then onto 80/94 for the turnout. But by ratting our repository of bits we were able to successfully clip things up successfully.

We’ve reinstated one panel of 60AS that was removed months ago. However, to aid in connecting up to the bigger rail and to avoid cutting 2 otherwise good lengths of 60AS we’ve actually installed a half length of 60D rail. It’s much easier to join to 80lb given the materials we had on hand.

We’ve cut and drilled the closure rails, in 80lb, however installing those will be tomorrow’s first job.

As from morning tea onwards, we had a change of pace, dropping out sleepers near Pipeline Crossing in readiness for our big resleepering effort to begin again in March.

Given that the wagons were already at Maldon, only the trip out and back was required. A nice small load as part of T333’s testing and bedding in process.

It was then onto marking up rail, as we discovered in last year’s effort, knowing where sleepers need to go precisely, and only handling them once is a massive time saver.

As always, every fourth was picked out in a different colour. This section will be in the same style as late last year, 1 in 4 e clips, the remainder will be fastclips.

It was a bit of a relearning curve as our trusty sleeper gauge had been packed away, and while it was being found, a stick from the bush was called upon to substitute.

Once the train was empty and the sleepers marked up, the heat had risen suitably to encourage us to call it a day.

Tomorrow’s crew will work towards completing 3 Road at Maldon before the day warms up, there’s a few other jobs to knock over at Maldon tomorrow also. Meeting there from 8am.