|
This page last altered 17/4/08 June 2008 1st June 2008 Following the heavy rains of the previous day, the water was also well up at the completed 3km bridge.
May 2008 31st May 2008 It would have to be said that we just got all that concreting at the 16km bridge done in the nick of time!! On Saturday 31st May, whilst working on the last stage of the concrete works required at the 16km bridge abutments, it rained a bit. Well quite a bit actually, as can be seen from the photo below, only 8 days on from having finished the footings.
22nd May 2008 Following a couple of days of initial curing and a bit of rain, the formwork was stripped from the new footings at the 16km bridge site.
20th May 2008 With the reinforcing steelwork completed mid morning, it was in with the concrete, supplied by Hanson's Mandurah plant and pumped into place by Boomcrete of Mandurah. The 4 footings consumed a little over 30 tonnes of concrete.
19th May 2008 The formwork used for the trestle footings was designed and supplied by (Boral) Perth Formwork. The system, known as "Boral Acrowall", is extremely easy to use, especially when the available modular sizes are taken into account at the initial footing design stages thereby allowing the finished heights of the forms to be the finished heights of the required footings as was the case here. 5th May 2008 With the first new concrete at the 16km bridge poured, accurate toweling off was carried out to ensure the necessary good base for the main formwork to be erected on. The Boss (Ian Willis) would have to be happy with this, everyone head down backside up working!
The task of replacing the 40 odd culverts lost in the bushfires has continued in the background and at Monday evening 5th May Robbo's Contracting of Pinjarra had progressed to culvert #28 at the 16.965km point. This culvert is in a high catchment area requiring a larger pipe than most of the other culverts. All of the replacement culverts have been bedded in, filled to rail height and compacted with crushed rock 'roadbase' to ensure potential for subsidence under traffic is significantly reduced or eliminated. The very heavy rains of 2007 turned the burnt out culverts into large washaways resulting in large quantities of roadbase fill being required.
4th May, 2008 Looking more like an archeological dig of ancient ruins than a railway bridge, work had progressed to where all blinding forms were completed by knock off time on Sunday 4th May as Rob, Ashley & Paul of Puffing Billy Railway proudly show off their handiwork.
3rd May 2008 At the beginning of May, work re-commenced at the 16km bridge with the forming and pouring of concrete blinding slabs around the 4 fire damaged trestle footings. These slabs will provide a flat and level base for the main formwork to be erected from and fastened to, preventing them from moving or floating as they are filled with concrete to reform the trestle footings. Accuracy of the blinding slabs was ensured so as to automatically provide accurate finished heights for the completed footings.
April 2008 24th April 2008 On Thursday 24th April, rails were placed over the 3km bridge by the Puffing Billy Railway team which completed the first of the four bridges between Alumina Junction and Dwellingup. The original ballasted deck bridge had rail joints upon it however with the new transom bridge rail joints have been arranged off the bridge structure, necessitating cutting of the original line which is being carried out in the adjacent photograph by John Shaw as Paul Trew looks on ensuring the cut is square and 'true'. The machine in the background of the photo is a tamping machine which arrived from the Pemberton Tramway several days earlier.
12th April 2008 Saturday 12th April was a big day. An access road bridge was created at Isandra by placing a wagon chassis across the waterway, ballast regulator was transported from Dwellingup to immediately west of the 3km Bridge, sleeper scarifier was transported from Isandra also to the west of the 3km Bridge and last but not least the 3km Bridge steel work was erected.
Late Saturday afternoon 12th April, the structural steel work of the 3km Bridge was fully erected. Just as the steel work at Etmilyn and Davis Brook went together with speed and ease, so too did the 3km Bridge. The structural steel work has all been manufactured to a very high standard by WaterCon of Malaga to all bolted designs created with HVTR, based on WAGR principals for all welded 20BSU steel bridges.
On Saturday morning a wagon chassis (QU25029) was placed by crane across the waterway immediately to the southern side of the Isandra Bridge. This chassis will be re-decked and provide access for bridge reconstruction as well as ongoing maintenance and emergency access as it joins what were two dead-ends of a fire break. 9th April 2008 - Isandra Siding
On Monday 7th April work re-commenced at Isandra Siding and the 10Km Bridge. Point timbers required replacing at each end of the siding and a significant quantity of the sleepers in the siding, which had been burnt from the fire. Photo on the left was taken Wednesday 9th April shows work progressing at the eastern end of Isandra. The 10km Bridge is immediately beyond the scarifier, which can be seen in the far distance of the photo.
5th April 2008 - Dwellingup Depot
On Saturday 5th April the sleeper scarifier having completed some 6500 sleeper replacements from the 3km Bridge to Dwellingup, was transported to Isandra for the completion of sleepering the siding and then the final portion of track between the 3km Bridge and Alumina Junction. Photo on the right shows scarifier loaded at Dwellingup on a tilt tray truck owned and operated by local Dwellingup Contractor Dave Every.
3rd April 2008 - 3Km Bridge
Left is a view showing the new M24 hold down bolts, held in place by special templates after having been set in place using the HIT500 chemical anchor system.
2nd April 2008 - 3Km Bridge The first of the 6 bridges from Pinjarra is the 3km Bridge. The concrete repairs at this bridge site were completed in May 2007 utilising special early funding provided by the Peel Development Commission. In April this year (2008) work commenced on completing the bridge. On Wednesday 2nd April the concrete foundations were core drilled to accommodate the new hold down bolts which will be chemically secured in place with a HILTI product - HIT500. March 2008 30th March 2008 - Davis Brook Bridge On the 30th March ballasting of the Davis Brook Bridge was completed. The ballast was delivered nearby from road transport, then placed on the hi-rail using a bobcat loader, then shoveled into place by hand. Approximately 27 tonnes of 50mm hard rock ballast was placed in this way over the 3 spans of the Davis Brook Bridge and the single span of the Etmilyn Bridge. 19th March 2008 - 16Km Bridge On the 18th and 19th March the abutment sills of the 16km Bridge were cut with hydraulically powered diamond saw (1.8m in diameter) to provide a non-canted mounting surface for the new bridge spans. When previously built in timber, the bridge was constructed on a grade as well as being canted. The new steel structure will have the cant accommodated within the ballasted deck. The concrete cutting was carried out by Freo Concrete Cutting. 16th March 2008 - Etmilyn Bridge
On the 16th March the first bridge was completed, this was the Etmilyn Bridge, the 6th bridge on the line from Pinjarra. Tony, Fish and Dave from Puffing Billy Railway of Victoria proudly posed for the occasion. 2nd March 2008 - Davis Brook Bridge
Over the 1st and 2nd March the structural steelwork was fully erected for the Davis Brook Bridge
February 2008 29th February 2008 - Etmilyn Bridge
On the 29th February trestles and beams were placed at the Etmilyn Bridge site. Work continued to progress throughout the month of February, principally on sleeper replacements east of Scarp Road.
January 2008 29th
January 2008 - DM Loco V4 DM Loco V4 has been at Pinjarra for approximately 18 months having a variety of work undertaken prior to its return to Dwellingup for use on the Forest and Restaurant Train services.
The loco was originally brought down to Pinjarra by John Holland's road transporter following a wheelset failure where one wheel had moved inward on the leading axle. Work on the locomotive is steadily progressing and it is proposed that this loco will be utilized for ballasting work on the repaired line from Alumina Junction to Dwellingup prior to its return to the Dwellingup roster.
29th January 2008 -Restoration Work - Level Crossing Equipment
At the HVTR Pinjarra Depot, work is progressing on the level crossing equipment for the two actively protected crossings on the line to Dwellingup which were also lost in the bush fires. The first stages of this work involves restoration of recovered electrical cabinets donated to HVTR by WestNet Rail.
19th January 2008 - 13km Bridge Site work
13km bridge site - Eastern Abutment With the retaining soldiers and deadmen securely reinstall, the abutment sheeting replacement commenced. Above Puffing Billy Railway Contractors can be seen compacting the back fill which has been stabilize of the addition of 3 to 5% cement powder mixed in with the original soil believed to have been railed to the site from the Isandra Siding WAGR sandpit when the 3 span bridge was constructed in replacement of the original several span structure many years ago.
Image to the left is a view of the 13km
bridge - Western
December 2007 13th December 2007 - Ballast Regulator on the move again.
After completion of its work as far as the 16km bridge, the Ballast Regulator is once again loaded to road transport for a visit down to Pinjarra and some much needed maintenance, love and care. 11th December,2007 - Re-sleepering east side of the 13km point Before and after shots of the re-sleepering east side of the 13km point. In this general area, sections of up to 25 sleepers in a row were completely burnt out. 11th December 2007 - Ballast Regulators Movements
The Regulator being unloaded at the 14.300km point, immediately east of the upper lights crossing.
Following completion of the Ballast Regulator's work as far as the bridge at the 13.383km, the machine is once again transferred to the next section by road. This scene is the loading operation at the 13.210km point. 6th December, 2007 - Re-sleepering at the 12km point location.
This work is being carried out for HVTR by a team from the Puffing Billy Railway of Victoria utilizing equipment and materials provided by HVTR. The sequence can be clearly seen here as a backhoe removes the old sleepers in the distance, the Linear Scarifier follows, clearing the sleeper cavity to the required shape, size and depth. This is followed up by manually inserting the sleepers, which are then plated and drilled. Next comes the gauging and fastening utilizing petrol driven power tools to install galvanized "Dog-screws".
A close up of the Linear Scarifier at work Sleeper distributions is by Hyrail with the sleepers brought to the suitable loading points by the HVTR Hiab Truck.
Morning smoko - lineside at the 11.750km 6th December 2007 - Access Roads. Much of the HVTR line has long been inaccessible by any means other than train, trail bike or "shank's pony" . This has therefore required the construction of significant amounts of access roads to enable repairs to be carried out, particularly to the bridges and the many culverts. The photo below on the left is a section of the access roads is located on the downside of the line to the east of Scarp Road in an area of multiple burnt out culverts. There are some 17 burnt out culverts in the first 2km east of Scarp Road.
The photo above on the right is a section of the access roads looking east at approximately 17km point. Burnt out culverts - east of Scarp Road. These 8 photos below show a selection of the burnt out culverts in the area east of Scarp Road
Heat Damage to Rail - 16.650km point
Heat buckle east of Scarp Road at approximately 16.650km 4th December, 2007 - Ballast Regulator at 13.1km
Ballast Regulator in action at the 13.1km point, immediately west of the lower level crossing lights. (Photo courtesy of Don Smith) 1st December, 2007 16km Bridge site now with access roads and cleared debris
November 2007 30th November 2007 With bridges missing, the only way around for machinery is by truck & crane. Here, the Pemberton Tramway Ballast Regulator is being placed on track at the 11.5km location having previously been working between the 3km bridge and Isandra Siding. This machine is moving vegetation and clearing the gravel ballast from the track and sleepers to enable identification and removal of the burnt out sleepers plus a clear safe working environment for sleeper renewal.
28th November 2007 - Trestles for Etmilyn and Davis Brook Bridges.
The photo on the left is the Pinjarra Team assembling one of the trestles for Davis Brook Bridge, while the photo on the right is the 6 assembled trestles at Pinjarra ready for Davis Brook and Etmilyn. (Photo of the Pinjarra team courtesy of Bevan Hill) October 2007 Sunday 7th October - Etmilyn Bridgework
This week end saw the completion of the four abutment wing walls at the Etmilyn Bridge constructed from 868 bags of concrete, each weighing 30kgs and all manually placed.
Week ending Friday 5th October - Repairs to Culvert
The first of the many burnt out culverts was replaced this week just east of the 13km bridge. This culvert is one of the largest at 700mm diameter and 12 metres long. As noted earlier on this news page, this location had become a large wash away due to the significant rains of this winter. Continuing water flow had to be managed during the installation of this culvert.
September 2007 28th & 29th September 2007 - Etmilyn Bridgework Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th September work at Etmilyn continues with the construction of the abutment wing walls using 30kg bags of concrete premix stacked, spiked and watered to create simple effective wing walls.
16th September 2007 - Etmilyn & Davis Brook Bridgework
On Sunday 16th September HVTR members installed the abutment face timbers at the Etmilyn Bridge site and back filled them with limestone. Late in the day the lower four timbers at each abutment of the Davis Brook Bridge site were also installed. The photographs (by Andrew Bremner) shown here are of the work at the Etmilyn Bridge site.
August 2007 4th August 2007 - Etmilyn Bridge work On Saturday 4th August anchor bolts were set into the abutments of the Etmilyn Bridge site to secure the staunchions, which will retain the abutment face timbers. Similar work had been completed at the Davis Brook site on the week-end of 28th and 29th July.
July 2007 Construction of Access Roads to 13km and 16km Bridges Work has commenced on the construction of access roads to these two bridge sites to facilitate machinery and personnel access for their reconstruction. Significant earthworks are involved and once again, CSBP Kwinana have assisted with the work by donating several 600mm diameter heavy wall polyethylene pipes for use as culverts on these access roads.
The two photos above are of drilling and blasting of rocks to facilitate machinery access at the western end of the 13km Bridge. Left - Access Road construction on the northern (down) side of the railway immediately east of the 13km Bridge. The blue excavator is working adjacent to one of the largest lost culverts on the line, located in a deep gully. With the wet weather we have been experiencing, this location has washed away significantly leaving a cavity more than 5m wide and 3m deep. Photos by Peter Robertson
11th July 2007 - G123 Arrives at Dwellingup John Holland Rail, utilising the track maintenance machine transporter operated by contractors J J Hawkins transported G123 by road from Pinjarra to Dwellingup on Wednesday the 11th July ready for service the following day. Thursday the 12th July, being the first day of steam for Hotham Valley Tourist Railway this season.
|
|
For Bookings Call : Australia 08 9221 4444 Web site built by N. Blinco. Maintained by Karen Fisher - Webmaster - Pemberton Tramway Co
|
