Railway Maintenance

There was such a lot of noise and dust in the direction of the railway line that I went to investigate. Three big, bright machines were working on the tracks. One of the workers was happy to explain to me what was going on. The first (upper right) was the tamper that jiggles the tracks to set them straight. Then comes the regulator that redistributes the ballast (middle right).
Finally, the machine that vibrates on the surface to compact the ballast (right-hand end of lower shot). I've forgotten what it's called, but the man asked me to pardon his expression when he referred to it as a sort of er... vibrator.

Work had to pause because a train was due. The three machines were joined up (lower shot) and they went off to the nearest siding for half an hour.

As you can see Mount Torlesse is still free of snow.

Best seen in large.