Tomorrow will see us returning to rerailing! We’ve spent this morning getting everything prepared and organised to hopefully allow us get a few hundred metres rerailed on Thursday and Friday.

Tomorrow’s crew will be meeting at Maldon at 8am or out by Sawmill Road from 8.30am.

We managed a very comfortable 40 concrete sleepers today, installed between Muckleford Yard and Chapman’s Lane.

These have been installed into a roughly 1 in 4 pattern, with a few extra where sleepers were particularly poor.

It was a very comfortable days work, from unspiking, running a 2inch along the length, installing the sleepers and a full tidy up, tamp and box up.

The only thing that would make it better now would be a hundred tonnes of ballast and a production tamp, hopefully those days will come.

This 1 in 4 pattern is something we’ll be progressively working on over the next few years. Continuing on all the way to Maldon. This will effectively pin our gauge all the way and give us a little more flexibility in replacing the remaining timber sleepers, hopefully aligning with more comcrets being made available through the level crossing renewal projects around the state.

Next week will hopefully see us back into rerailing, however, check back here Monday for details of Tuesday as it may end up being a preparation week.

Yesterday’s crew managed to not only remove but also collect all the anchors from Sawmill Road right through to Brown Street, in readiness to begin rerailing.

Tomorrow’s crew will set about renewing sleepers between Muckleford Yard and Chapman’s Ln crossing. We’ll be meeting at Maldon from 8am or out on site from 8.30am.

Friday was spent removing a series of minor track geometry faults between Maldon and Muckleford. None particularly major, however much easier to remove them early and stop a real fault from forming.

They were all in locations which we’ve previously dug out to remove mud, just natural settlement.

By day’s end it was all looking pretty good, without easy access to a production tamper, it’s hard to know exactly where to draw the line with the minor dips etc… however we could easily just keep going forever to get it perfect.

Tomorrow’s crew will have a change of pace, with rerailing preparations beginning near Sawmill Road, with anchor removal. Meeting at Maldon at 8am or out by Sawmill Rd from 8.30am.