Tomorrow, we’ll be meeting at Castlemaine Depot from around 8.15am, then out by Rowe St. Level Crossing from 8.45am, replacing sleepers.

Another big day of sleeper dropouts, only 898 sleepers were dropped out today, still lots, but not quite as impressive as yesterday’s 1,337.

The main focus was again in the region of pipeline crossing, this time on the Down Side or as depicted here, being dropped out for use on the Down side of the crossing. There isn’t an enormous number of locations to unload along this section, being either on embankments or in cuttings, so we’ve had to unload heavily at a few select sites.

The equivalent to another train load of sleepers were loaded at Muckleford, and it is starting to show a notable dint in the stockpile there.

We’ve decided to be more effective at this, it’s time to drag the other two flat wagons back in as sleeper carriers, taking the full train up to 6 wagons, and allow around 600 per train rather than the current 450, keeping just inside the load limit for a Y class. The extra wagons, QN ballast types, haven’t seen much use for a few years, so before we press them into heavy service they’ll be given exams at Castlemaine – but it would be rude if they just got a free ride to Castlemaine, hence they were put to work on their delivery to the workshops.

The afternoon saw us mix things up a little, with 264 low profile sleepers taken through to Maclise Street Crossing, for spot replacement between Rowe St and Midland Hwy crossings over the next 2 weeks (while the extra wagons are being prepared for the next sleeper trains).

Next week, we’ll try to get at least 150 inserted between Rowe St and Midland Hwy, provided the weather is reasonably kind we should do fairly well, check back Monday for details of Tuesday, however all being well, meeting by Rowe Street Crossing at 8am.

We managed to set a record today, for the greatest number of sleepers we’ve moved by train in 1 day! A total of 1,337 sleepers have been dropped out trackside, with a further 450 loaded and ready to go in the morning.

First off we unloaded a full train load of fast clip sleepers out by Pipeline Crossing, these will be used in the straight and very large curve nearby.

Then off to Muckleford for a full reload, this time e clip type sleepers, for use in the curves on the Down side of pipeline crossing.

They were dropped out well ahead of lunch, in time to return to Maldon and unload the next semi load of sleepers arriving.

Cross loaded from the truck straight onto the train, nice to not have any double handling.

Once they were loaded, all remaining fastclip sleepers at Maldon were loaded, happening by fluke to perfectly match the number needed to make a full train load!

Another discharge well on the Down side of Pipeline crossing further around the sweeping curve saw the wagons emptied again, ready for the final load of the day at Muckleford.

Tomorrow we’ll be meeting at Maldon at 8am, we do need to fuel up the digger and do a couple of small odd jobs, before we head out to drop out the loaded sleepers. However by the end of tomorrow, we should have another few hundred sleepers dropped out, all helping to work towards getting them into the track.

We set about beginning the replacement of failed sleepers between Midland Hwy and Rowe Street today, we’ve got around 200 to replace, and we made a start by installing the first 15 (as that’s all we had out on the ground)

While there, we corrected a number of small dips from Winters Flat Bridge, through to Maclise St Crossing, none of them major, but easier to correct when only minor.

The humidity did make the day rather uncomfortable, however we pushed through, also managing a big whipper snipping around Midland Hwy crossing.

Thursday and Friday will be dedicated to sleeper trains, as we need to get sleepers out trackside for future works, we’ll be meeting at Maldon at 8am and heading out along the track as required.