After a busy day yesterday of tamping, refitting angle braces and fixing a minor track fault, a successful test train was run over the bridge! All our hard work has stood up faultlessly.

Unfortunately due to its popularity and number of pictures we post on this blog, it may be a little while before we can post pics again – as we’ve run out space! We should however be able to keep putting up text, so we’ll try to tell the story, but hopefully we can fix this issue soon.

Thursday’s gang will be preparing the next jobs, which is the replacement of 2 bridge piles. We’ll be meeting at Maldon at 7.45am or at the Bridge from 8.15am

Back down at Muckleford Creek Bridge this week, with the final 2 steel crossheads now installed.

Earlier this week the old crossheads were removed and the steel replacements inserted.

The use of the telehandler and man basket has certainly improved things enormously!

By day’s end it was all fastened up, props out and looking very smart.

The appearance does change slightly with the steel, however it really does take more than a glance to notice them.

The other main job for today was the levelling and jacking of the track near the down end, by the pile we lifted out its settlement a few weeks back.

Unfortunately the digger broke, so it was loose shovel packing of the ballast today, incase we can’t get the digger ready for trains next Wednesday! We’ll be right, but this is a good extra layer of insurance.

Tomorrow gang will be ongoing at the Bridge, fixing a few holes in the decking and the like, getting it ready for the final push on Tuesday, ready for Wednesday’s Trains.

More crosshead replacement today, this time on pier 8.

It was all done in largely the same style as on Tuesday, however improved by the use of a spreader bar above the bridge, rather than just chains.

There’s very little to go, with just 4 bolts to drill and install tomorrow.

However, given tomorrow’s hot forecast, it’ll be very much a finished by lunch affair, if not sooner. Meeting at Maldon at 7.45am to collect up the tools for the job, then down to the bridge site around 8.15am.

Today was our first ever crack at installing a steel crosshead. And on the whole, it’s simpler than timber, with a lot less stuffing about required.

We had previously predrilled the steelwork and that made the task extremely simple.

As they were significantly bigger than the existing timber crossheads, new pile shoulders needed to be cut, that is a little fiddly, however a small inconvenience for something that then went together with no hassles.

We forgot to get a picture of the finished product all bolted up, however at a glance it doesn’t look overly different to the timber, and a closer look does make it look like a very impressive lump of bridge.

Although there are plenty of examples of this in use in other locations, it’s a first for us and as such this is a trial so we can evaluate the effectiveness, issues associated and ongoing maintenance obligations. We’ll be doing two other sets of crossheads in the same fashion this year, which will give us an excellent scope to determine the suitability of this method.

This, as with all things timber these days, is us exploring alternatives, given the extreme price and low availability of suitable timber, it’s only initiatives such as these that will see us in a position to maintain these bridges going forward, we’re quietly confident this will be a success.

On a side note, Will’s taking some time off for a minor surgery of a shoulder injury, so the communication may be a little hap-hazard for the next few weeks. Please bear with us!

However, the plan is still very much workdays at Muckleford Creek Bridge every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, meeting there from 8.30am. A few extra drivers might be needed to bring both trucks out from Maldon on Fridays however, any help there will be greatly appreciated.