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
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.
VGR Civil Blog 