We had quite a different pace today. The main focus was finishing off and tidying up a very large mess around the Yard, especially in relation to the point rodding, which had been partly disassembled some time ago for a communication conduit and then just left for someone else to tidy up, anyhow the someone else’s stepped up to the mark today and returned everything to how it should be, it does actually make the area look quite a bit neater too.

We’ve prepared the next section of 3 road for resleepering later in the week, by unspiking the required sleepers, removing plates etc..  there’s been a bit of a hold up getting the Takeuchi going again, so we may not have that until later on Thursday, however we can start making a mess with the big digger if need be.

One job we’ve been putting off until we had an opportunity like this was to bring down the water cranes, for the purpose of a heavy clean and repaint. We had enough time this arvo to do that so we did! They’re actually quite light things, but awkward, anyhow it’s down and up by the compressed air and water in the depot for the crew to begin the task of re-painting. We look forward to putting a nice shiny one back up! These column were only installed about 20 years, as part of the nearby mainline upgrades, so the bolts etc… were very easy to undo, the recent oiling also helped.

Thursday’s gang will meet at the depot at 8am then out by the platform thereafter.

After the success of Fridays efforts, install a further 25 timber sleepers into 3 road at Castlemaine, we’ll be back at Castlemaine again tomorrow, however we’ll have a very slight change of pace.

The little digger is in having some attention (a new rocker cover gasket and turbo / breather hoses), so we’ll be doing a few different jobs, in preparation of more resleepering later in the week.

Today’s Driver Experience train conveyed a train load of items down to Castlemaine for us, things we’ll likely need to do various tasks around the Yard and it’ll give us a good excuse to load up all the items we won’t be needing there any longer and getting them back to a more suitable home. It was quite nice to see a steam engine handling this task, as though that’s just how we do it!

Tomorrow’s crew will meet at Castlemaine Depot at 8am, first job being to help lift off the little digger engine covers.

As we transferred the required equipment and tools from Maldon through to Castlemaine to undertake re-sleepering works, we did a few odd jobs on the way.

The first being the stacking of timber gluts at Muckleford onto pallets ready for collection by another railway, the other being the remove of a slight dip that had re-formed by Pyrenees Hwy.

It was only relatively minor, however it’s a location we lifted significantly a few months ago, so settlement was likely. Hopefully this will have done the trick.

Then it was into Castlemaine, replacing failed timber sleepers in the platform road, using the best of the sleepers recovered from the recent concrete sleepering. We managed to get 15 inserted and clipped up this afternoon, which was quite good going given the setup, refuelling and other odd tasks we did as well.

There are around 150 sleepers to replace around the Yard here, so this should keep us busy for the next few weeks!

Tomorrow’s crew will meet at Castlemaine Depot from 8.15am, where we’ll bring out the truck and digger and get a few more replaced in 3 Road.

We had a nicely successful day today, with the remaining timber sleepers (from the concrete sleepering) stacked and bundled.

We’ve prepared all the necessary materials for the resleepering works at Castlemaine and loaded them onto trucks and rail wagons as appropriate, ready for transport down there later this week/early next week.

Thursday’s crew will begin at Maldon at 8am, working our way progressively towards Castlemaine undertaking a few odd jobs along the way, if we knock those over suitably early we may make a start on resleepering, otherwise we’ll be ready to get into it on Friday.