TAMPING

Tamping ballast is a regular maintaining item that is done all the time on our railroad. After a while the track becomes uneven or develops a twist and I will notice this when I am running the train. The heat we have been having and the NO RAIN with it the ground has shrunk and cracked. When it happens under the track it can droop and cause things like the engine to uncouple or cause derailments. So out with the crow bars and we tamp!
The other night I was running with Thomas and the engine kept uncoupling in a certain spot. So the next time around we took the track tools with us and checked out the problem area. Thomas felt real important because I let him use the level to check the track to find the dip. When he found it the crowbars came out and we lifted the track to remove the dip. We then swept the ballast down inbetween the ties and then used the flats on the crowbars to push the ballast under the ties to make up the space that had disappeared from the ground shrinking. Thomas has a ball when we do this. He feels real important when we do maintenance on the track.