Lots of pictures today, now that our Thursday photographer is back on hand.

It all went very much like clockwork today, with pictures telling the story perfectly.

There is always something strangely satisfying about the destruction portion of the job… gentle is probably not a word to describe us when we’re in this mode.

The roadway was actually in excellent condition, most timber was still good and the road-base was bone dry, clean as clean and a rock hard base to match – ideal.

We did give it a thorough roll with a nice small roller this time, certainly not the ground shaking excitement of a 8tonner, but it was more than adequate to compact the tiny layer of loose stuff we created.

Well ahead of any anticipated schedule, we had the rails more or less in place.

A quick bit of cutting and bolting up marked the very final end to the mainline 60lb rail and the re-railing program (there’s plenty of little bits we’ll do here and there, but no more 60lb to remove).

Some fine tuning of the line was made before the big ballast effort begun.

We have installed a drain on the north side of the crossing should water ever find its way in, however it’s probably a massive overkill.

All jacking was done using the laser method – once the grade is set, it all happens so easily.

We didn’t manage any action shots, however the crib ballast (between sleepers) was compacted with the jumping jack and nicely levelled, twice, to ensure a very firm base exists for the asphalt.

We’ve also replaced a few timber sleepers either side of crossing, with the being the final clip installed as part of the rerailing project.

The council has done an excellent job helping out with this project, at this stage the asphalt will be between the rails only, however they’re supplied crushed rock for outside the rails, for easy removal later on to continue the asphalt outwards.

The team helped to compact the first layer of this before calling it a day, we feel like we’ve set a new all time best for quickest and least hassle crossing renewal, all that planning has paid off!

We’ll go into a few more details of just how significant this crossing rebuilt is in relation to the rerailing project tomorrow night. Today’s is big enough on its own!

The asphalt arrives at 9.30am tomorrow and we’ve still got a bit to do before hand, meeting on site, Sawmill Road, from 7.30am

The last movement over the old Sawmill Road Crossing this afternoon.

And once the train was out of the way, it was into destruction mode – we’re good at that bit. We’ve lifted the rails on the UP side of the crossing, and got those on the Down side holding on by just one bolt to allow easy digger access in the morning, then we’ll be ripping it all up!

We’ll be on site from 7am in the morning. However, the man power will be really needed after lunch, so please feel free to have a bit of a later start. Parking, if possible, please keep well away from the crossing to keep our machinery and access. There is plenty of room down by the Bridge, and it’s only a short stroll.

Today began with a thorough benching.

The Maldon Men’s Shed built and donated some hardwood timber benches for use at Muckleford Station.

The VGR installation crew and the Maldon Men’s Shed on hand to test out the seats.

The hard part for us was digging the holes deep enough for these weighty beasts! They’ve been concreted in and had termite treatment installed to ensure they’re a Muckleford Fixture for many years to come. We spent a long time choosing the height, correct distance from wall for comfort and future building painting, and then choosing a location – it turns out the door is not central, so that changed things a little.

They came up a treat however, Thanks Heaps Maldon Men’s Shed!

Out at Sawmill Road we got to check out the exciting signs warning of Thursday’s road closure!

We then unloaded the last of the materials needed there before we installed new crossing signs, as the old ones were well past their best before date – mainly the posts, we’ve reused any signage that was still good.

We’re still set to replace the crossing at Sawmill Road on Thursday, history has shown we need people from lunchtime onwards, as up till then it’s all digger work.  We’ll be on site from 7.30am however for any too eager to miss out on the action.

It’s a little hard to tell in the photo, however the main purpose of the day was to improve the top of the track approaching the crossing, this is a before, with the after below.

You might have to take our word for it, but there is a difference.

We also made use of the day to do as much tidying up as possible, such as dragging rails over the old crossing rather than damaging the new surface.

A similar treatment occurred on the Down side, however being much shorter this didn’t take overly long.

We then headed towards Castlemaine, where on the way we corrected a slight kink that was developing just off Pyrenees Hwy Bridge.

It’s a bit hard to tell in the photo, but it’s now greatly improved, we moved around 50m of track to ease the tight spot and improve the transitions, much better now. We did make sure that all sleeper ends had ballast well packed to prevent any movement, that was probably the cause, lack of sufficient rock on hand after jacking and tamping there some time back.

The crew working on the water column cleaning and painting are making good progress, making use of a digger visiting Castlemaine today to have it flipped over, ready to repeat on the other side.

We also attempted to correct a few minor building issues at Castlemaine, the only thing we successfully achieved was cleaning out a gutter, otherwise every thing we touched was either call a tradesman or sufficient broken that new bits need ordering.

We did tick off one job there, being the fitting of anchors to the rerailed section of 3 Road. Which was nice one to have behind us.

Tuesday’s crew will meet at Maldon at 8am, we’ll be doing a few odd jobs as we get the last of the hardware etc… out to Sawmill Road crossing