Saturday 26 May was a well-attended work day at Maymorn - with progress made on many key jobs.
By 8 a.m. we were pouring 25MPa concrete, casting two foundation walls for the Rail Vehicle Shed workshop extension, completing the floor alongside road 2, and the first of three pours for the rail-bearing inspection pit wall.
A contractor also started work on site, excavating the formation for a turnout that will connect the mainline to the rail vehicle shed. We plan to start work on this turnout shortly. Attention then turned to the site access road - with a new track formed to by-pass our current temporary gate arrangement. Once the gate has been moved we will be able to extend our mainline track up to and past the pedestrian crossing.
We also continued work on our double-slip, with one of the two outer slip rails cut to length and running rails connected. We also had a session of on-job training for rail personnel, covering off requirements of US19784 Install or replace rail. A lingering alignment issue within a slip frog was also worked on, with reasonable results. We now have 6 switch blades in place in the structure, with a further two on hand to complete the number required. We are now a couple of work days away from having all rail in place and one road able to carry rail vehicles.
An internal safety assessment was also completed mid-afternoon, an important rail management task.
Looking ahead - a number of us are heading to the FRONZ conference held in Rotorua over Queen's Birthday weekend. We look forward to catching up with people involved with the many other heritage and tourist railways in New Zealand, and taking in a Rail Cruising journey - recently launched on the former Rotorua branchline.