The perway team have been putting in the hours recently as we work towards the return of train operations at Cooma. Not only have the team been repairing track to allow our Rail Motors to traverse the yard, they’ve also been toiling away on a number of the Goods roads in Cooma yard to allow rolling stock to be moved to different locations around the yard.
While replacing sleepers around the yard is already hard work (especially when over 30 years worth of oil and sludge has turned the surrounding dirt to concrete), replacing point timbers is a whole different story.
Over the past 2 weeks, our perway team have been working to replace a number of large point timbers on a set of points leading into the Goods Shed. This involved removing the existing point lever and rodding, removing the rotten timbers and inserting the new almost 4m long timbers into place, which isn’t a simple task when there is a track running either side.
With the assistance of an excavator, thanks to the generous support of the Strachan family, the new timbers were finally moved back in to place on the weekend, the point lever and rodding were reconnected and another section of track in the yard is completed.
It’s really starting to come together now, piece by piece. Exciting things will be happening very soon.
🙋♀️ Did you know? Our current perway team is primarily made up of our youth members, or apprentices as we like the call them, who range in age from 11 to 15 years of age. Under the guidance of our Rail Infrastructure Manager, the team have continued to develop their skills and are now taking a lead in the restoration of our rail infrastructure.
