Tom, I'm not speaking for any officers or Board members but I know the museum's approach to track construction has changed. When I started in 1997 everything was done by hand including tamping. As the mainline grew we realized that air tampers were a good idea. They allow more work from the available crew. Now that we have well over 2 miles of main and even more yard trackage to maintain, a hydraulic tamper would be a good purchase. It would save the crew for replacing ties, etc and more people could do tamping, even members that can't physically do it the old way. I'll note that if we have an event like the picnic or 1910 Days where visitors are watching a track crew demonstration everything should be done as it was 100 years ago.
