Device for tamping railroad track adjacent the tie ends thereof

Abstract

There is disclosed a tamping device for tamping railway track ballast adjacent and beneath the track tie ends. The device includes a track working machine, a retractable tamper frame mounted on the machine; the frame in operative position, extending, at least partially in the ballast, parallel to the center line of the track adjacent the outside the tie ends; a plurality of tamping plates mounted one behind the other longitudinally of the frame and extending inwardly thereof, in the direction of the track center, in stepped formation with a leading tamping plate extending farther from the frame inwardly towards the track center than a next adjacent trailing tamping plate. Each tamping plate has a leading edge and a trailing edge, one of the edges being flexibly connected to the frame and the other of the edges being connected to a tamping plate vibrator. A ballast plough is mounted at a leading end of said tamper frame. The plough has a rearwardly upwardly inclined ramp surface and a ballast share blade extends above the ramp surface and is inclined inwardly from a point adjacent the nose of the plough rearwardly towards the trailing end of the plough. Provision is made for swinging the plough or the share blade, or the tamper frame with the plough thereon, so as to alter the blade ploughing angle in the ballast. A ballast deflector flap may be provided at the leading end of the share blade to deflect superfluous ballast away from the tack center.