Hot is certainly a good word to describe today, the morning was quite pleasant, with various tasks undertaken, mainly finalising the bridge work preparations, making sure we’ve got spare bolts, sharp chainsaws etc…

We saw a snake in the depot, but lost sight of it passing under the telehandler… we’re wondering if it’s made itself at home in the engine bay as it managed to evade 3 sets of eyes extremely quickly, however none of those eyes were anywhere near brave enough to open the cover to find out!

We then brought all our trucks back to Maldon before all looking at each other, then the strong hot wind and deciding we could achieve nothing productive given the weather. So we called it a day.

We have got the big digger up and running again, a failed electrical plug was the culprit, right down near the head, that has been repaired and given a significant amount of padding to help protect it, next time it’ll likely be due for a new wire to be run to remove a few of the many joins it has.

Tomorrow’s work will all focus on getting ready, not just for bridge work, but for the resleepeeing, we’ve got a few more things to make, weld up and test so hopefully with a few hands we can knock that over in no time and be very productive once the big project kicks off in a few weeks.  Meeting at Maldon from 8am

We successfully managed to paint over all the graffiti along the carriage shed and workshop at Castlemaine today, however due to a digger break down and some complications with the Vline occupation, not much else was achieved.

Tomorrow has been declared a total fire ban, which will curtail our plans somewhat, it’ll also be hot and horrid which will certainly not lead to high productivity. We only have a few odd jobs that need to be attended to, these being the running of trucks from Castlemaine back to Maldon and the like, as such if you’re travelling any distance, please stay home, as we’re very like to finish early. Otherwise for anyone local, meeting at Maldon at 8am.

Well, today saw us achieve not a great deal, although it seemed to take all day to reach that unimpressive goal! We have managed to help the Mechanical Department get the superheater header back into the J class, which put them in a better position to start re-assembling the loco.

We did break the digger, no idea how or why but the rails wheels wouldn’t lower… pulled apart the checks valves associated with the cylinders, no issues were found but upon reassembly it all worked, so we guess that’s a bonus.

Tomorrow’s workday is all about getting prepared for the coming few weeks of works. We’ll meet at Maldon at 8am, loading various things onto trucks etc.. to move around as required. We’ve also got a few hours work to finish off the Turnout at Maldon.

Wednesday we’ll be meeting at Castlemaine Depot at 8am, where the main focuses will be painting out Graffiti and lineside vegetation control out to Rowe St.

Thursday is our backup day to finish what we don’t on Wednesday, hopefully we’ll move onto tightening bolts in the Castlemaine to Rowe St. Section.

Friday, is bridge work preparation, which all being well should be a case of Meeting at Maldon at 8am, however that could change considerably. So check back closer!

It’s pretty much complete now! Only a couple of hours work on Tuesday should see the final ballasting and very last tidy up completed.

With the ballast on and tamped, it certainly came up looking quite smart

It’s even got spreader bars and a point lever fitted, all tested and working correctly!

It’s been a long drawout job, initially we didn’t install it as we needed a train free week, or at least have 2 locos available to push/pull a train without running around at Maldon, which hasnt coincided with our availability.

Next week will be a slightly different one, as we’re going to make use of a Vline shutdown to do graffiti removal works and  clearing of foul foliage between Castlemaine and Rowe Street, that’ll occur on Wednesday and Thursday next week, so anyone interested in moving their day to Wednesday would be most welcome.

More details will follow next week.