We had a very successful, if not a bit hot, day at Muckleford.

We replace 19 sleepers in the curve at the UP end of 1 road, in a rough 1 in 3 pattern, to ensure we can hold gauge and to allow for the re-railing of the high leg of the curve to remove a few issues with joints. If the weather Thursday is kind enough, we’ll change the rail then, as we’ve now got a joint which we can’t secure up properly given we had to change fishplates to use the concrete sleepers.

We’ve replaced 5 point timbers in the down end 3 road turnout, the rest of the timber is quite reasonable, however these 5 were particularly bad, one of these was under the point lever, which was becoming an issue, corrected now however.

On Thursday and Friday we’ve still got a few timbers to replace in the next turnout and we’ll potentially even have a go at straightening the very bent point blade.

Thursday’s gang will meet at Maldon 8am or our at Muckleford from 8.15am.

Sorry about the late notice, however tomorrow’s workday will be at Muckleford Yard, replacing a series of failing timber sleepers at the UP end of 1 road. It’s predicted to get hot, so we may well call it quits earlier than usual, however we’ve picked a job that isn’t too much trouble to walk away from if need be.

Meeting at Maldon at 8am or Muckleford Yard from 8.30am.

We did manage to make use of today’s cooler wet weather to get the ballast tidied up from last week. It has come up looking quite smart.

Not a massive number of sleepers installed today, just 13, down by Midland Hwy, however it sees the section from Rowe Street to Midland Hwy tied up safely once again, allowing the removal of a temporary speed restriction that’s been in place for several weeks.

After installing the 13 sleepers, in what seemed like almost recorded time, we had a massive tidy up of all the timber, tamped all the new sleepers, picked up any remaining steel work, ran a truck back through to Maldon and even managed a bit of tidy up around Castlemaine Depot, collecting all the unrequired rail still sitting around from our various projects over the past few years – loaded onto a wagon for a trip out to the stockpiles at Muckleford.

We’re yet to box up the ballast, however this job inevitably has the potential to make a spark, so today was not at all appropriate given the dry and heavy wind, if we get a dose of rain and everything is damp on Monday, we’ll do it then, if not we’ll bring out the firepatrol unit.

In good / great news, the big digger is now unbroken! It was all related to the solenoid that failed the other day, the exact cause is still a little unclear, likely to do with the valve the solenoid operates, however it now works and removing that solenoid and replacing it replicates the fault, so we’re now confident that’s the issue. Just one to keep an eye on for now.

Given were running ahead of schedule with the resleepeeing but we weren’t sure where we stood with the digger, next week is at this stage a little unplanned, however we do have a few odd jobs to attend to at Muckleford, please check back Monday for details.

We managed to install at least 60 sleepers today, we’ll get the actual number tomorrow. Starting at the Bell Block between Rowe and Maclise Streets, we’ve replaced all the marked sleepers right through to just past Maldon Junction. It’s not a bad effort at all.

Just the one digger on hand today, the other is still rather broken, we still managed quite a respective rate of progress, but didn’t manage to get to any of the old timber clean-up.

Very few locations actually needed the gauge adjuster, which was great, however it was still needed.

We attempted to remain as spread out as possible, however the clipping up is actually very quick, so inevitably that crew had some down time.

One main benefit of the trolley is the portable seat for the quiet moments!

The section Maclise Street to Maldon Junction didn’t receive as many sleepers, however we’ve put the focus heavily on the curves and vulnerable locations, such that we’re almost at the point of being gauge proof in this section now.

Tomorrow’s gang, weather permitting, will see another 15ish sleepers installed down by Midland Hwy Crossing, in the bit we didn’t quite get to the other day when out in that area, we’ll also go through and give the lot a tamp, tidy up and ballast regulate to tidy everything up.

Meeting Castlemaine Depot at 8am or out by Midland Hwy Crossing from 8.30am.