We made a good start on our track inspections today, with both Maldon and Muckleford yards having been thoroughly walked, measured and written up.

We had a driver experience train operating today so we worked around that by not going out on the running line.

We spent a very long time going over Maldon Turntable, lubricating every moving part, test every possible position for alignment etc… it passed with flying colours, however we found a slight rumble in its operation as the wing wheel had to contend with a bit of detritus at the abutments, so a thorough shovelling off they got.

It’s now very well overdue a paint but hopefully all being well that won’t be too far away.

Between showers, we spent some time playing with a new tool we recently acquired, a metal bandsaw. We’ve been needing something to cut steel for a while now, generally using the rail saw, but that is not overly practical. A deal and opportunity too good to pass up came out way, so we’ve now got a decent bandsaw.

One of its many jobs will be trimming fishplates. It’ll no doubt be used for allsorts, however. We’re still getting the hang of it. It will comfortably cut a fishplate in under 2 mins – without the noise, sparks and back-breaking labour of the rail saw. That’s 6 fishplates down, only 394 to go!

Tomorrow’s crew is back onto track inspection duties, leaving Maldon 8am.

Lots of odd jobs took place this past week  with some new grab plates for the little digger installed – to replace the original and extremely worn out set.

Unfortunately, they look too nice to use.

Timber sleepers were bundled, strapped and stacked at Maldon, as we had ended up with quite a few half packs that needed combining.

A bit more tidy up, and we even got a rare glimpse of the partly painted F class while we were moving other items in and out of the shed.

Other jobs completed included the Big Digger receiving some maintenance, a full track weedspray was completed on the only day that was suitably dry and still. Lots of little tidy up and odd jobs occurred and that theme will continue this coming week, however due to other obligations, there will be no workday on Monday, however from Tuesday it’ll be back to usual, meeting Maldon from 8am.

Well, after a big effort, we’ve now completed the installing component of our resleepering program for 2026.

As with the last section of fastclips we did, we’re yet to come back and clip ever single sleeper up, however the hard yards are complete and once the bits are on hand it’s only a day or two to knock that over.

Today was all about tidying up and getting the gear back home.

We’ve bundled up all the loose sleepers and loaded them onto a wagon at Muckleford.

We even recovered a concrete sleeper that found its way a little too far down the embankment!

Next week will be a maintenance week primarily, centred around Maldon, meeting there each day from 8am. The roses at Maldon are looking very impressive. Well, worth a look if you’re passing by.

Although we forgot to get a finished photo… it’s now concrete sleepers all the way to the bridge!

140 we installed over the past 2 days.

This pics shows how much we’ve actually lifted the track, although at a glance at the finished product, you really can’t tell. We spent a lot of time graduating a long ramp down to the bridge, using increasingly thinner concrete sleepers to achieve the bridge height.

It was all pretty regular stuff, just with a few VR type and low profiles towards the Bridge.

Since these pics we’ve done a bit more lining and it’s looking very smart.

Tomorrow we’ve got some other activities to attend to up at Maldon so there won’t be a workday, however Thursday will be workday, meeting at Maldon at 8am.