Up-close And Personal With A First-rate Tamper!
This clip gives us an intimate look at the incredible process of a tamping machine!
A Tamping machine, also known as a ballast tamper, is a machine used to pack track ballast under railways, to ensure the tracks are as durable as they can be! This Union Pacific owned, gorgeous piece of machinery operating in Los Angeles, California, is the Plasser & Theurer 09-3X Dynamic Tamping Express!
This machine and its crew were were working on the Lemon avenu grade crossing in the Walnut/City of Industry area!
The 09-3X is a high speed, heavy duty, nonstop action track tamping beast! The tamping units themselves are mounted on self propelled, separate satellite frames, and have the capability of tamping three sleepers at a time!
The rods go down into the ballast, and vibrate in order to collapse any air pockets that have come about over time!
Before the advent of the tamping machine, tamping was done with manual labor, with the help of beaters!
Has anyone seen one of these beasts in action at their local track? We’d love to hear about it if you have!
