This past Saturday we had a big enough turnout to be able to split into teams: one to take care of some sleeper and point timber replacement and the other to do some vegetation clearing around the Lilydale end of the yard.
Team Hi-Rail got stuck in replacing 6 deficient sleepers that were scattered throughout the yard. As the team was feeling particularly keen we also replaced a couple of turnout timbers. After ‘packing’ the freshly installed timbers the track gauge was bought out for the post-works inspection – the track geometry is looking much better, so there were plenty of faults to be cleared from the list later in the evening!
Whilst that was going on, Team Brushcutter was hard at it clearing around the top end of Goods Road. The Workshops team had shunted the rake of wagons in this siding (on the left in the above photo) a bit further down towards the station to prepare for some upcoming works in this section, bringing attention to some unsightly summer growth in and around the track. With plenty of road traffic going through the nearby Healesville-Kinglake Road level crossing it’s important to keep this area looking reasonably tidy. It’s now looking a lot better and combined with an end-of-season weed spray earlier on in the week it won’t take long to really finish off the job.
It’s amazing what a bit of teamwork can achieve – and you can be a part of our team too! Visit yvr.org.au/volunteering to find out more about all the ways you can help out the Yarra Valley Railway.