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A spike driver (also known as a spiker) is a piece of rail transport maintenance of way equipment. Its purpose is to drive rail spikes into the ties on a rail track to hold the rail in place. Many different sizes of spikers are manufactured and in use around the world.
Historically, spikers was the slang-name for the rail workers who drove in the spikes after the gandy dancers laid the track on the tie. Spikes are used to hold the rail in gauge and keep it connected to the ties. Before the development of automated spikers, this task was done entirely by hand using pickaxes to drive the spikes into the ties. This process was slow and not easy to learn (at the driving of the golden spike that marked the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869, several executives of the companies building the railroad tried and failed to drive in the final spike, showing how difficult a task it was). [1]
To make the process of driving spikes faster and easier, automated self-propelled machines that travel on the rails were developed in the 1900s. These machines can insert spikes far faster than by hand. Brian Solomon writes that, "Spike drivers take less time to accomplish their tasks than it takes to read about it." [2]
When in operation, a spiker works by using rams to drive spikes into the ties, using either compressed air or hydraulics to power the rams. The spiker uses chutes to automatically feed spikes to the rams, which are present on both sides of the machine to allow spikes to be inserted on both rails at the same time. A worker will periodically add fresh spikes to the chutes as needed to keep the machine supplied. On larger spikers, spikes are supplied from a feed bin, eliminating the need to add spikes by hand. [3] Railroad workers operate the machine by directing the rams and moving the spiker, which is usually self-propelled and powered by a diesel engine. The process is as follows: [2]
A typical spiker has controls on both sides of the machine, allowing it to operate when only one of the two rails needs spikes inserted.
A train is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives, though some are self-propelled, such as multiple units or railcars. Passengers and cargo are carried in railroad cars, also known as wagons or carriages. Trains are designed to a certain gauge, or distance between rails. Most trains operate on steel tracks with steel wheels, the low friction of which makes them more efficient than other forms of transport.
Promontory is an area of high ground in Box Elder County, Utah, United States, 32 mi (51 km) west of Brigham City and 66 mi (106 km) northwest of Salt Lake City. Rising to an elevation of 4,902 feet (1,494 m) above sea level, it lies to the north of the Promontory Mountains and the Great Salt Lake. It is notable as the location of Promontory Summit, where the first transcontinental railroad in the United States, from Sacramento to Omaha, was officially completed on May 10, 1869. The location is sometimes confused with Promontory Point, a location further south along the southern tip of the Promontory Mountains. Both locations are significant to the Overland Route: Promontory Summit was where the original, now abandoned, alignment crossed just north of the Promontory Mountains; while Promontory Point is where the modern alignment, called the Lucin Cutoff, crosses the southern tip of the Promontory Mountains.
A railway track or railroad track, also known as a train track or permanent way, is the structure on a railway or railroad consisting of the rails, fasteners, railroad ties and ballast, plus the underlying subgrade. It enables trains to move by providing a dependable surface for their wheels to roll upon. Early tracks were constructed with wooden or cast iron rails, and wooden or stone sleepers; since the 1870s, rails have almost universally been made from steel.
The Golden Spike is the ceremonial 17.6-karat gold final spike driven by Leland Stanford to join the rails of the first transcontinental railroad across the United States connecting the Central Pacific Railroad from Sacramento and the Union Pacific Railroad from Omaha on May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory. The term last spike has been used to refer to one driven at the usually ceremonial completion of any new railroad construction projects, particularly those in which construction is undertaken from two disparate origins towards a common meeting point. The spike is now displayed in the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University.
Rail transport terms are a form of technical terminology applied to railways. Although many terms are uniform across different nations and companies, they are by no means universal, with differences often originating from parallel development of rail transport systems in different parts of the world, and in the national origins of the engineers and managers who built the inaugural rail infrastructure. An example is the term railroad, used in North America, and railway, generally used in English-speaking countries outside North America and by the International Union of Railways. In English-speaking countries outside the United Kingdom, a mixture of US and UK terms may exist.
A baler or hay baler is a piece of farm machinery used to compress a cut and raked crop into compact bales that are easy to handle, transport, and store. Often, bales are configured to dry and preserve some intrinsic value of the plants bundled. Different types of balers are commonly used, each producing a different type of bale – rectangular or cylindrical, of various sizes, bound with twine, strapping, netting, or wire.
A sledgehammer is a tool with a large, flat, often metal head, attached to a long handle. The long handle combined with a heavy head allows the sledgehammer to gather momentum during a swing and apply a large force compared to hammers designed to drive nails. Along with the mallet, it shares the ability to distribute force over a wide area. This is in contrast to other types of hammers, which concentrate force in a relatively small area.
A railgrinder is a maintenance of way vehicle or train used to restore the profile and remove irregularities from worn tracks to extend its life and to improve the ride of trains using the track. Rail grinders were developed to increase the lifespan of the tracks being serviced for rail corrugation. Rail grinding is a process that is done to stop the deformation due to use and friction on railroad tracks by removing deformations and corrosion. Railway tracks that experience continual use are more likely to experience corrugation and overall wear. Rail grinders are used to grind the tracks when rail corrugation is present, or before corrugation begins to form on the tracks. Major freight train tracks use rail grinders for track maintenance based on the interval of tonnage, rather than time. Transit systems and subways in major cities continue to use scheduled rail grinding processes to combat the corrugation common to heavily used tracks. Rail-grinding equipment may be mounted on a single self-propelled vehicle or on a dedicated rail-grinding train which, when used on an extensive network, may include crew quarters. The grinding wheels, of which there may be more than 100, are set at controlled angles to restore the track to its correct profile.
Gandy dancer is a slang term used for early railroad workers in the United States, more formally referred to as section hands, who laid and maintained railroad tracks in the years before the work was done by machines. The British equivalents of the term gandy dancer are navvy, originally builders of canals, or inland navigations, for builders of railway lines, and platelayer for workers employed to inspect and maintain the track. In the Southwestern United States and Mexico, Mexican and Mexican-American track workers were colloquially traqueros.
Maintenance of way refers to the maintenance, construction, and improvement of rail infrastructure, including tracks, ballast, grade, and lineside infrastructure such as signals and signs.
A tamping machine or ballast tamper, informally simply a tamper, is a self-propelled, rail-mounted machine used to pack the track ballast under railway tracks to make the tracks and roadbed more durable and level. Prior to the introduction of mechanical tampers, this task was done by manual labour with the help of beaters. As well as being faster, more accurate, more efficient and less labour-intensive, tamping machines are essential for the use of concrete sleepers since they are too heavy to be lifted by hand.
Sperry Rail Service is a rail inspection company founded in 1928 by Elmer Ambrose Sperry. The company was the first in the world to offer nondestructive testing of railroad tracks. Since its formation, Sperry has been contracted by most of the major railroads in North America to inspect rail. To accomplish this task, the company operates a fleet of rail service vehicles that travel along railroads to detect defects.
A work train is one or more rail cars intended for internal non-revenue use by the railroad's operator. Work trains serve functions such as track maintenance, maintenance of way, revenue collection, system cleanup and waste removal, heavy duty hauling, and crew member transport.
A ballast regulator is a piece of railway maintenance equipment used to shape and distribute the gravel track ballast that supports the ties in rail tracks. They are often used in conjunction with ballast tampers when maintaining track.
A tie crane or tie handler, is a piece of rail transport maintenance of way equipment used to move and handle the railroad ties used in rail tracks using track relaying. The machines are used as an alternative to the manual labor once used. Tie cranes frequently work with tie extractor/inserters to replace ties as part of a section gang.
A rail fastening system is a means of fixing rails to railroad ties or sleepers. The terms rail anchors, tie plates, chairs and track fasteners are used to refer to parts or all of a rail fastening system. The components of a rail fastening system may also be known collectively as other track material, or OTM for short. Various types of fastening have been used over the years.
Loram Maintenance of Way, Inc. is a railroad maintenance equipment and services provider. Loram provides track maintenance services to freight, passenger, and transit railroads worldwide, as well as sells and leases equipment which performs these functions.
A track renewal train is a work train that consists of many units of machinery and materials required for track renewal projects.
A tie exchanger is a self-propelled railroad maintenance of way vehicle that removes old railroad ties from tracks and inserts new ones. By using mechanical and hydraulic force, a tie extractor/inserter can replace ties much faster and with more precision than is possible by hand.
A spike puller is a railroad maintenance of way machine designed to remove rail spikes from ties. The spike puller automates the task of spike removal, allowing it to be done at a rate greater than can be achieved by hand. Spike pullers range from small hand operated hydraulic machines to self propelled machines controlled by an operator in an enclosed cab.