Well, we had a very interesting day today, experimenting with using recycled plastic as bridge decking. It’s a concept we’ve wanted to try for a long time, exploring alternatives to timber.

We’ll be trialling the success of this over the next few months to determine its suitability as a alternative to timber, especially in regards to durability, appearance, ease of install etc etc.

We’ll go into this in much more detail next week, however it should be quite an interesting project. It turns out it’s very quick to assemble and very easy to work with, we’ll cover all the specifics next week, as it’ll make much more sense once it’s in place.

We’ve preconstructed the deck, with gravel beams (kerbs), something which can be done with timber, but it really then requires a crane to install given the weight, however this is significantly lighter and should be easily managed with the big digger.

It’s been assembled in 3 sections, stacked onto a trolley, ready for taking out to site next week. The trial bridge will be Muckleford Creek, given its decking is due for renewal in the next few years. We’ll undertake the rest of the assembly on site, late next week, with Tuesday’s gang preparing the bridge for the swap.

On Tuesday we’ll meet at Maldon at 8am or out by Muckleford Creek Bridge from 8.30am.

We did it!!! We’ve joined up to the existing 80lb in curve 7.

Although not the very final bit of rerailing, today was a massive milestone in the process, with only Winters Flat Bridge and Sawmill Rd Crossing left in 60lb now.

Today only required 5 and a bit lengths of 80lb to be installed to close the gap, which, given our rather impressive gang turnout, happened rather easily and quickly.

For some reason the final 5 rails provided us a few more hurdles than we’ve had for some kms, two sleepers needed moving and one rail required trimming, however it was nice knowing it was the last time we’d need to do it (in this fashion anyhow).

Before long the final long rail was in, with roughly a 6m closure required to join the two sections of 80lb.

It wasn’t long before a suitable rail was found, cut, drilled and bolted in.

Before long it was time for the golden clip ceremony (not real gold incase anyone was getting any ideas…). The final pair of clips required to make this section trafficable.

A few customary short speeches, and the finished product, looking pretty snazzy.

However, the day certainly didn’t end there, with foot crossing rehabilitation and jewellery collection following the achievement.

We’ve also collect all the jewellery drums, implements, power packs and odds and ends, taking them back through to Muckleford or Maldon.

There’s still a lot to go and we’re still in needs of help for many many years to come to truly complete the task, however being able to see all that rail no longer lying in the middle of the track, but actually in the track, is a fantastic thing. Everyone involved should be extremely proud of their effort, and we really can’t thank you enough for time, effort and dedication you’ve shown.

Tomorrow will be a complete change of pace, where we’ll be up a Maldon, working on a new and exciting project. Join us from 8am at Maldon to find out more!

Well, after today, we’re quite literally within sight of Brown Street, with only about 6 rails left to install now.

Today’s effort involved lots of preparation, including dropping out fishplates, bolts, and pre-lubricating the joints etc… after all that went very smoothly, we set about rerailing.

We managed to get 300m of rail installed into the Down leg.

Thursday will be the grand hurrah day to finish the rerailing for this section. It’s by no means the end of the rerailing, but it will mark a very major milestone.

We’d like for anyone who has been part of the re-railing so far to come along on Thursday for the joining up of the 80lb, we’ll try to make it a bit ceremonious.

Thursday we’ll be meeting at Maldon from 8am or out by Brown Street Pedestrian Crossing by 8.30am.

Well, today, somewhat unexpectedly ended up being quite a milestone day in the rerailing.

We had just the right number of people join the gang today and we managed to install a further 10 lengths into the UP leg, this reached all the way to the existing 80lb near Brown street.

It all seemed to happen very smoothly, with the closure back to the 80lb we installed a couple of years ago completed by 2pm!

This is quite an achievement, as the UP leg, (with the exception of Sawmill Rd Crossing) is now 80lb or 94lb from Maldon right through to Winters Flat Bridge!

We should comfortably complete the Down leg down to this point next week (we were going to tackle a different project next week, but we forgot about the short week and it’ll likely no quite fit into the four days).

The days of heavy rail lying in the middle are almost behind us.

Of course the job is still a long way from complete, still thousands of sleeper plates, dogspikes and replacement sleepers are required, but it’s certainly now less of a distant goal and more of a tangible reality.

Tuesday crew will meet by the corner of Nolan’s Rd and Chapman’s Rd Castlemaine from 8.30am, to hopefully put a big dint in the Down Leg.