As promised more pics of our latest contract job in Bendigo. Today was very successful, with the job now ready to put together next week.

The excavation for the new track and turnout.

New sleepers to support the remaining track layed through the concrete.

A shot of the works at close of play today, sleepers are in place for the south end of the new road, and rails are positioned alongside ready to be moved over next week.

In the north section of the job the trench through the existing concrete slab has been dug and rubble removed, we’re expecting crushed rock for the road bed to be delivered Monday and that portion will be tackled next.

We’re at Bendigo all next week and we can always use a hand, please contact Will at ganger@vgr.com.au if you’re interested.

Well we’ve started a new contract job, this time in Bendigo at the old Railway Workshops.

The job requires a new turnout and some plain track to reconnect a road in the shed.

The view above shows the early stages of excavating the fill for the new turnout, with lots more pics to follow tomorrow.

Mean while on the VGR, bolt tightening and checking was back on the cards.

Clive showing off his strength, here tightening a bolt in one of the 80lb sections, these have now settled in and were in need of a tighten.

The trusty Jack spanner in use here.

This pic shows the end product that we’re after, firm nuts that just compress the spring washers, this allowing contraction and expansion of the rail.

This washer, although still probably doing a fine job was broken and therefore replaced. Any little jobs like this were attended to by the gang.

Malcolm and Clive getting ready to grab spanners and tighten.

Malcolm doing the hardest job of the day, driving the truck!

The gang will be out again tomorrow, this time adjusting rail anchors near boundary track crossing and clearing blockages from the drains. Feel free to come along and help out. Meeting 9am at Boundary Track Crossing.

A last pic to show the stunning sunrise as captured in Maldon’s main street this morning, every morning this time of year is quite magic.

As promised today was more bolt tightening, this time on the straights near donkey farm track.

Smaller gang size today but we still managed a good 1.5kms, which is very impressive.

You’ll notice in the pic above that a local Wallaby was most intrigued by our noise. It was there watching for a good few minutes before deciding we were boring and hopping off.

Well just because we didn’t think we’d done enough of it lately, we did some more bolt tightening!

Incase I’ve not shown them before, these are the bolts, infact this pic shows all the different styles of 60lb bolts that can be found on the railway, so many different spanners and sockets are required.

This spanner is actually a rail turning bar, cleverly designed to fit the square nuts, not their main function but they certainly do an excellent job, often easier to use than the purpose built spanners!

Today even saw a new volunteer on the gang, Andrew. We’re hoping to see him again on the track, a very useful man with a spanner.

Clive hard at work tightening bolts while Rolf manages the back breaking job of trolley leaning. By the afternoon we’d gone up over the top of the hill and down the other side, this section is all 80lb which means all the nuts are the same, making the job much easier. We even decided very quickly that using spanners was easier than battling with the noisy rattle guns.

A sly shot of Clive taking a quick rest after doing a mountain of tightening right at the end of the day’s work, while Malcolm poses showing us just how much he enjoys his time on the gang.

Today’s pics are all compliments of Bruce. The gang set a new record for bolt tightening today, managing over 2km of tightening. Help from the prison workforce is always a great aide but the backbone of our operation is always our volunteers, who week after week do an amazing effort on even the most mundane of jobs. A big thankyou to all of them.

We’ll be out again tomorrow playing with bolts, this time near Donkey Farm Track. If can spare some time, please feel free to help out our civil gang, any help is always greatly appreciated.