Waiting for Lunchtime

Something new every day

Whether or not it's true that you really do learn something new every day, it certainly happens at times.

While passing through Slough station earlier today, on the way to spend Bank Holiday Monday pottering around Windsor, we spotted a strange unit parked up on the railway lines.



Well neither of us are in any sense of the words trainspotters, but we took a picture so that we could try to find out what it was. A quick web search soon found that it was an "Amey Tamper" machine, but that wasn't a great deal of help as I haven't a clue what a "Tamper" actually does. So once again the internet came to my help, and a quick request on usenet soon gave me the answer I wanted.

A Tamper is a machine for packing down the stone ballast that supports the sleepers on a railway line. So now I (and you!) know.

posted by Iain @ 20:30