WHILE not victorious on the day, the Queensland Rail Central West team certainly put in a solid effort at the finals of the Silver Spike competition at the Emerald Show on Wednesday.

It was neck-and-neck between competitors from Central West and Mackay for most of the way, before Central West got stuck on a captain’s dog near the end of the race.

But it was the QR National Mackay boys who took the number one spot with a time of seven minutes and 33 seconds to lay 13 metres of track, which under normal circumstances would usually take two hours.

Central West wasn’t too far behind with a time of eight minutes, but the judges penalised the team for one error and added 30 seconds to the time.

Rockhampton came third, with RACS (Rolling Stock and Components Services) following in fourth.

Ross Arnold of the Central West team said he was disappointed in the loss, but it was all in good fun.

“It’s really good camaraderie between the teams,” he said.

Mackay will compete at Mt Isa in August for the next phase of the competition and Ross was selected to be in the Allstars team to go on to Mt Isa as well.

The Champion Spiker Award was won by Rhett McQuillan.