Saturday 18 January 2003, Canberra

Saturday the 18th of January will be remembered by many as the day Canberra burned.

The Society extends its commiserations to all those that were adversely affected by the fires.

While many Canberrans concentrated on the fires, the Society had already organised to have the siding that runs beside the Museum re-sleepered. The following is a pictorial.

Late-breaking news: As at 2000 hours on February 1, the MTR has not sustained any damage due to the Canberra bush fires. The line was officially re-opened, with the intention that the advertised running program for Sunday, February 2, will go ahead.

	While the Tracker Jacker lifts the rails and (some) of the sleepers, the Flying Toothpick grabs an old sleeper for removal.
The old sleeper is placed trackside for later clean up. 7320 (owned by Bill Cleary) in the background and provides the air compressor for our spike hammer.
	A new (second-hand) sleeper is selected for placing in the track.
Alan Ward directs drilling of new spike holes in the sleeper.
	Ray Brown hammers home a dog spike.
At around 1pm, the Rockulator trims up the ballast at the end of work. Note the colour of the sky, that is, the smoke of the fire racing towards Canberra. News that the Monaro Highway had been closed due to fire danger had us fearing for our line running beside it.
	Police would not let anyone use the Monaro Highway south of the Johnson Drive intersection. This view from there shows the sky colour over Calwell and Theodore. It was darker than actually shown, because the camera was stopped down to 1/10 sec at f2.8 ­ hence the blurred picture.
At 3pm, this was the sky from Queanbeyan Railway Station. Note that the street lights are on. We were very worried about the line at that stage. As it turned out, the fire did not get to the Monaro Highway, it devastated Canberra instead.

Advertisement for Lindsay Richmond FOR SALE Large N scale layout 13'x8', 100'+ of track, bridges, tunnels, can be taken apart and reassembled. Locos & Rollingstock also for sale. Ring Lindsay on (02) 6231 4182 or 0418 658 641, or email LRich89944@aol.com.

Saturday, 1 February 2003, Canberra

A long-standing track work project has been the building of a siding specifically to hold our track machines ready and accessible for use on the Michelago line.

Currently they end up on the end of one siding or another, with various vehicles stored in front of them.

Starting the day with a major shunt doesn't go down well when you need the machines out on the line early before the sun heats the rail.

Hot, expanded rail does funny things when you pull out dog spikes for sleeper replacement.

A year ago when replacing fire-damaged sleepers, we had a section that decided that the correct gauge should be 5ft 6in. We had some difficulty persuading it otherwise.

About 6 months ago, rail and sleepers were laid on the tarmac where various piles of spare materials had been.

When 3801 and 3830 were proposed to come to Canberra, we knew we had to upgrade the track feeding into the main Museum facilities.

Sleepers were replaced on the tight curve leading to the Museum points.

It was also decided that the points for the Museum headshunt had to go as they used the worn turn-out section as the main line, and were on a badly-dipped area of track.

A prime area for derailment given the weight of a 38 class.

The points were removed and replaced with plain rail suitably raised and re-aligned.

The point-blade part of these points was placed in the straight track next to loco, aligned and ballasted. The line then successfully carried each 38 for servicing and refueling.

	Alan Ward drives the Rockulator sweeping the track where the point frog is to be inserted.
Rod England removes a bolt from the spacer piece so the places can be marked for blowing holes in the turnout rail.
	David Malcolm blows the holes in the turnout rail for the spacer bolts.
The point frog is levered into the cut out section of the running rail.
	Job complete for today, with the turnout rail spiked down and the the checkrail fitted.
The view of the day's work looking back towards the Museum buildings.