Head of steel
We've made a start on building our future mainline track at Maymorn. Track has reached the 150-metre mark and plans are afoot to extend it to the Kaitoke end of our Maymorn site.
We have been working on connecting our mainline to the shed yard, including a double slip and two turnouts, all in 91LB/yard rail. The double slip has been extensively rebuilt from a donor asset purchased ex KwiRail during the Wellington rail upgrade programme. Both turnouts have essentially been built from scratch from individual components. The 91LB rail has been cascaded out of our mainline to build the turnouts.
Progress December 2012 - January 2013
Work on the double slip had reached the stage where we could bolt on running rails for the road 2 turnout and align with...
Good progress had on Saturday with our current challenge - to connect up our mainline with the rail vehicle shed yard at Maymorn. We split up into teams - sorting and moving 50kg rail for mainline, loop and yard work, adding sleepers to the frog set of the double slip, and rail work associated with our new road 2 turnout.
Double slip
We set to and cleared out ballast under the frog and cheack rails at the Upper Hutt end of the double slip, and sorted through a small pile of 3.0m and 3.4m turnout sleepers for reuse. Sleeper locations were marked out to plan and most were...
During September we have connected the double slip at Maymorn to our existing mainline track. 91LB rail for the first trackset was drifted down to the turnout structure, sleepers respaced and fastened down.
Rather than drifting the remaining rails we are taking the opportunity to swap in six lengths of 50kg/m rail, so that the mainline is a consistent rail weight. The 91LB rail is also needed to build another turnout and to complete the inspection pits inside the rail vehicle shed.
There is a lot of preparation work to be done on the 50kg/m rail - selecting pairs, cutting to...
On Saturday 18 August we put a little more work into the doubleslip that we're rebuilding from a kit of parts. In the above, Colin, Peter and John were drilling holes for a checkrail at the Kaitoke end of the slip, the checkrail and running rail having originated from a turnout purchased from KiwiRail at Taita.
The outer slip rail on the KiwiRail side needed further attention to ensure a good fit to the switch. There was some residual curvature that needed to be crowed out - a 40 minute job...
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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...