Quite a successful day today, until the little digger blew a hose, but thankfully we’d well and truly broken the back of the job by then.

We had a very light difference to contend with today, a section of timber sleepers with pandrol adaptors. These a little more labour intensive to unclip than standard spikes.

It was all pretty regulation stuff otherwise however.

We did change the way we handled the adapter type sleepers, leaving 1 in 4 fastened up, unlike the usual 3 in 4 spiked up, as with the clips they can’t just be knocked off.

We almost completed the insertions 1 in 2 and clipped up. The digger died with only about 5 to go. We should knock that over easily tomorrow once we’ve got the new hose.

It’s looking a bit rough and ready currently, it’ll improve greatly once we’ve done a lining pass tomorrow, inserted the intermediates and then tamped up the approaches.

Tomorrow’s crew meeting Maldon 8am or on site shortly after.

Yesterday’s Pics –

It started out as a very atmospheric day, a real late autumn, early winter feel in the air.

It didn’t take long to complete the 1 in 2’s, which got us comfortably into the straight.

This was followed by a very intense fill in run, getting the remainder in and clipped up.

A bit of ballast/gravel scrapping left the edges looking quite nice and tidy, this was mainly to permit a gentle squeeze in a few locations to fix any major dips.

The main work was completing the ramps at either end. Which both came up very nicely.

A few minor tweaks around the curve improved things nicely. It at least as good and in all honesty slightly better than it was previously.

We certainly managed to get a slightly better line around most of the curve, which improves the appearance to no end.

Today’s effort involved strapping up all the old timber sleepers as well marking out the next sections to be replaced.

The next little bit will be this section, on the immediate down side of Bendigo Road. This may seem a little illogical, however we’ll finish installing this type of sleeper before we move onto the fastclip type. We expect next week we’ll have both sides of the crossing completed and hopefully we’re very close to bridging the gap down to the run we installed near the Old Tip Xing.

It’s nice to be back resleepeeing and the more we get done between now and the end of June, the better off we’ll be, as once weekday trains resume in this section, things will slow down a fair bit.

Monday’s gang will meet at Maldon at 8am or out on site from 8.05am.

There is pictures to come, the internet connection tonight is insufficient to upload however the curve is now complete. Around 292 sleepers all told this week.

Tomorrow’s crew will meet at Maldon at 8am for the bundling and strapping of the old sleepers and hopefully making a start on the next section.

Another very successful day today, with the remaining 1 in 2 from yesterday inserted and clipped up well before morning tea.

We then went back and did the infill in the ramp with low profiles, as we can’t lift by the gang shed and turnout approach too much, so the lower sleepers are more suited.

Once that was comfortably behind us, as set the goal of completing the curve this week, a job which seems very likely.

By day’s end we’d inserted and clipped up the 1 in 4 for the whole curve and slightly beyond, we’ve unfastened all the timber and collected the jewellery, ready for a flying start inserting the infill tomorrow morning!

And the random picture of the day is of this little guy, who seemed to be claiming the track as his own and wasn’t in any hurry to move off without a bit of assistance.

Tomorrow’s gang will meet at Maldon at 8am, then out on site slightly thereafter.