On what was essentially meant to be a day of ballasting and Tamping the re-laid section of track outside the loco shed at Castlemaine, we managed to achieve what can only be described as a lot more than that.

We called in the tipper to help distribute the rock, it’s much more efficient than running ballast around by the bucket load, such as we’ve done previously.

We still had a whole range of holes, for various reasons dotted around the loco shed site, so we completed the works required to allow them to be filled.

Which then allowed for the whole area to be tidied up.

Which in turn then allowed us to make use of filled we’d stockpiled for the purpose of making a proper roadway across the track in front of the shed, the trust tipper came in very useful for this task.

We’ve laid geofabric down to give some barrier between the ballast and dirt, however in this setting, what we’ve done, once settled, will probably need a top dressing of good gravel to help it solidify and bind up.

We had Langy on hand with the bobcat to spread the fill, making for a much smoother job than we would ever have achieved with the digger.

Unfortunately we didn’t get a great shot of the finished product, but we’ll try get one tomorrow to show the full extent.

The other major task completed was dropping some rock into a section of erosion behind the loco shed, it was a bit of a two part exercise, requiring our digger to flick it over the fence, while Langy’s little digger went down into the creek bed to firm up the wall.

It’s a bit hard to see through the fence, but it should resist the floods a little better now.

In addition to all of that, quite a bit of tidying up was achieved around the front of the loco shed, especially the ballast profile, a section of poplar regrowth around near Rowe St was given a weedspray, at least to stunt its growth.

On the whole it was a very successful day!

Tomorrow will be a bit of a funny day, the big digger needs to make its way back to Maldon and lots of little awkward digger jobs need tending to, with the added bonus of forecast storm and rain! As such, if you’d really like a day out in the rain, by all means, please feel free to join, however you’ll be very understandably forgiven if you’d rather have the day off. Meeting Maldon at 8am or Castlemaine Depot from 8.30am.

We had an extremely successful day on Tuesday, with the short section of track outside the Castlemaine loco shed reassembled. One of the great things about concrete sleepers is the kit like nature in which the track can be disassembled and reassembled.

Once we’d given it a bit of a line, it can up looking very smart! Ballasting and Tamping will occur on Thursday.

Yesterday afternoon was spent clearing branches that were too near the track, starting at Castlemaine and ending up near Maclise St. This is almost an annual activity these days unfortunately, we’ve still got the rest of the track to go, but it is quite a slow going task, using a pole saw to reach up high enough to get the offending branches.

Thursday’s crew will meet at Maldon at 8am then at Castlemaine from 8.30am.

Today we made a start for tomorrow’s crew to re-instate the loco shed road at Castlemaine. With any luck it’ll all go swimmingly and we’ll have it back usable by mid morning. At which point we’ll jump over to a bit of tree trimming in the Castlemaine Area.

Meeting at Castlemaine from 8am

Believe it or not, it’s already been 6 months since the previous track walk! It’s task we do every 6 months, so this week, with its slightly cooler weather, has proved a nice time to do it.

The rolling track gauge was dusted off and after the usual checks against the track gauge and tape measure we set off. You’ll be pleased to know, only two locations with gauge issues were observed, with those two being very easily corrected, see below.

We did unfortunately, however not unsurprisingly, discover the general timber sleeper condition between Maldon and Pipeline Crossing has deteriorated significantly since the last inspection and as such well be placing a speed restriction over that length to extend its life until we can get the concrete sleepers in. The increased rate of deterioration is largely due to 3 consecutive wet winters, now that moisture is drying out, the sleepers are really showing their age. However, elsewhere, the rates of deterioration are as expected and still in quite good shape for the next 12/18 months.

We had two locations where old bridge piles have finally rotted out, one on the UP side of pipeline crossing, likely actually an old timber culvert, however possibly an old bridge.

The other, much more impressive and noticeable one is at the down end of Sawmill Rd Bridge, it is almost exactly spaced at what would be two spans from the end of the Bridge, Indicating that the bridge was probably at least two spans longer at some time in the dim dark distant past.

Neither is a great concern, simply filling with gravel and giving a good poke with the digger to fill the void below will be quite sufficient, as thats more or less how they were filled historically. Hopefully we’ll get time to do that tomorrow afternoon.

Our minor wide gauge issue was just past Sawmill Rd Crossing, in the very short section of remaining 60lb rail, all that was needed was the installation of a few outer metal biscuits and everything was back in tolerance. Hopefully only a few more months and this issue will go forever.

It was quite a successful day, with the section Maldon to Boundary Trk completed comfortably. Besides the few issues listed above, nothing of any great significance was discovered, which is fantastic, this was especially true in the recently re-railed section between Muckleford and Boundary Trk, it is holding up superbly. It has reiterated yet again that the remaining timber sleepers are very near the end of their life and we really do need to get the concrete sleepers in in a timely manner.

Tomorrow we’ll continue with the inspection, however we’ll start at Castlemaine Yard, meeting at the depot at 8am